
Class .Jff..^SL_ 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT; 




HENRY M. STANLEY. 



HENRY M. STANLEY 



THE 



AFRICAN EXPLORER 



By ARTHUR MONTEFIORE, F.R.G.S. 

EDITED WITH SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTERS 

By HENRY KETCHAM 



ILLUSTRATED 



_ * , * 3 3,3 , • z * > 3 • *• O 3 » * • 



THE PEEKINS BOOK COMPANY, 
296 Broadway, New York. 



JT 






THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS, 

Twc Copies Received 

APR 10 1903 

f\ Copyright Entry 
CLASS ft XXc. No 



^*M» 



COPY U. 



Copyright, 1903, 
By E. A. BRAINERD, 



PREFACE. 



"Strong in will, 
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.'* 

Tennyson. " Ulysses." 

Stanley's career is the history of the devel- 
opment of the Dark Continent. He has, indeed, 
been called the Columbus of Central Africa, 
but the title is inadequate. At the head of a long 
roll of honorable names, he has placed his own, 
— not by some mere chance of circumstance or 
fortuitous turn of fortune's wheel, but by dint of 
sheer determination " to seek, to find, and not to 
yield," by a rare courage, and a devotion to duty 
hardly short of heroism. He is more than a mere 
discoverer, for the scene of his many marvelous 
exploits has also been the center around which 
his highest hopes and deepest feelings have re- 
volved. For twenty years he has been an Afri- 
can traveler— for fifteen, an African enthusiast. 

But we must not suppose that Stanley was won 

over to the cause of the Dark Continent in a mo- 

v 



vi PREFACE. 

ment, that his well-known feeling on the subject 
arose, like some love, " at first sight." When 
searching for Livingstone he detested the country 
and its climate, and despaired of the people. 
Livingstone, who laid down his life for Africa 
and the African, would reason with him, hour 
after hour and day after day, but to little purpose 
at the time. Stanley has told us himself that it 
was not until he penetrated Africa for the second 
time that he first awoke to the fact that large 
portions of the interior might repay an outlay of 
labor and money on the part of Europe. Then 
the bread which Livingstone had cast upon the 
waters was found indeed, for Stanley remembered 
the arguments of the Doctor, and a burning zeal 
to be up and doing for Africa and its people be- 
came the ruling passion of his life. 

It must not be supposed that even this minia- 
ture portrait of Stanley's life is the unassisted 
work of the author. I have foreshortened the 
facts of many a bulky volume into that which 
now lies before the reader. The various letters 
and addresses of Stanley himself have been con- 
sulted, as well as his remarkable works, " How I 
found Livingstone," "Through the Dark Con- 
tinent," and " The Congo, and Founding its Free 
State." To Messrs. Sampson Low, Marston & 



PREFACE. yji 

Co., the publishers, I tender my best thanks for 
their special permission to make extracts from 
these works. 

And, although the needs of the many have 
naturally been preferred to those of the scientific 
few, an effort has been made to place the reader 
abreast of that geographical development of Cen- 
tral Africa with which Stanley has had so much 
to do. In a word, this work is intended to put 
before the general public an authentic and graphic 
sketch of just those features connected with the 
life of the great African explorer which help to 
make the portrait at once characteristic and true. 

ARTHUR MONTEFIORE. 

Bedford Park, W, 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

EARLY YEARS, 1840-1869. 

Denbigh, the birth-place of H. M. Stanley— His earliest 
years — Education — Emigration to the United States — 
Change of Name — A soldier with the Confederates — 
Taken prisoner — Return to England — Again in America 
— A Sailor with the Federals — Peace — To Europe and 
Asia — A Newspaper Correspondent — With the Abys- 
sinian Expedition — The War in Spain 1 

CHAPTER II. 

STANLEY'S OPPORTUNITY, 1869. 

Bennett's telegram— The Interview at Paris— Stanley's 
commission and his great opportunity— Journey through 
Asia Minor, Armenia, and Persia— Voyage to Zanzibar 
—Zanzibar and its People— The New York Herald Expe- 
dition—The Work of previous Explorers and the possi- 
bilities before Stanley 14 

CHAPTER III. 

THE SEARCH FOR LIVINGSTONE, 1870. 

The Start from Bagamoyo— The Route— African Roads— 
Useguhha— Tidings of Livingstone— Stanley's first ex- 
perience of Fever— The Makata Swamp— Farquhar's 
Illness and Death— Ugogo, the Land of Extortion— 
Unyanyembe — Unyamwezi — Arab Traders — On the 
road to Ujiji— Shaw's Desertion and subsequent Death 

ix 



CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

— State Visit of the Sultan of Manyara — More tidings 
of Livingstone— "The Old Man at Ujiji "—Stanley's 
rush through the Jungle to the Tanganika. 31 



CHAPTER IV. 

success, 1871. 

Entry into Ujiji — " Dr. Livingstone, I presume ? " — "Yes " 
— The Doctor's Travels and Trials — Expedition to the 
Rusizi — Return to Ujiji — Final departure for Unyan- 
yembe — Livingstone and Stanley part — En route for 
Zanzibar — Royal Geographical Society's Expedition — 
Safe at Zanzibar, and successful 53 



CHAPTER V. 

coomassie, 1873-1874. 

The British Expedition to Ashantee — Cape Coast Castle 
— The Gold Coast — Captain Glover's Force — Wolseley 
and his Staff — The British Army — Its Line of March — 
Battle of Amoaful — Dash upon Coomassie — The Capital 
of King Coffee Calcali — His Palace — Destruction of the 
City — Stanley versus Wolseley — The end of the Cam- 
paign 66 

CHAPTER VI. 

across the dark continent, 1874-1877. 

Death of Livingstone — The Daily Telegraph and New York 
Herald Expedition — Stanley's new Commission — The 
Completion of all former Discoveries — Arrival at Zan- 
zibar and departure for Interior — Striking a new Track 
— Death of Edward Pocock — Three days' fight in Ituru 
— Usukuma and Kagehyi — Victoria N'yanza and its Cir- 
cumnavigation — M'tesa, Kabaka (Emperor) of Uganda 
— Stanley's Conversion of M'tesa — His famous Letter — 
History of the Uganda Mission 83 



CONTENTS. x i 

CHAPTER VII. 

across the dark continent, 1874-1877— Continued. 

PAGE 

Journey to Muta Nzige — Cowardice of Waganda — Retreat 
to Uganda — Stanley at Karagwe — Exploration of the 
Alexandra Nile — Arrival at Ujiji — Circumnavigation 
of Tanganika — The river Lukuga, an effluent — En route 
to Lualaba — Tippu Tib — At Nyangwe — Cameron's far- 
thest — Terrible Prospects — Tippu Tib's Services — Diffi- 
culties and Dangers — Stanley Falls — Saidi's Rescue — 
Fight off the Aruwimi — Natives armed with guns — 
Stanley Pool — Livingstone Falls — Deaths of Kalulu and 
Frank Pocock — Starvation and Despair— Relief from 
Boma — The great Salt Sea — Round Africa — Home 
Again ! 105 



CHAPTER VIII. 

STANLEY, A STATE BUILDER, 1878-1884. 

Leopold II., King of the Belgians — An Interview — The 
International Association — Its aims on the Congo — 
Stanley's new Commission — Organization of Expedition 
— Boma — Vivi — Road-making — Stanley Pool — Native 
Objections to Treaties — Leopoldville — " Blood Brother- 
hood " — Explorations — Illness — Return to Europe — Net 
Results — General Character of the Congo Country 132 



CHAPTER IX. 

Stanley, a state builder, 1878-1884— Continued. 

Return to Africa — "When the Cat's away" — The price 
of a Bullet — Leopoldville Retrogressive — Its Restoration 
— En route for Stanley Falls— The Upper Congo — Bolobo 
and Diplomacy — "The White Man's Medicine!" — 
Bolobo again — A Tropical Tempest — Stanley Falls — The 
plucky Scotsman — Down the Congo — Sir Francis de 
Winton— Stanley's return to Europe 153 






Xii CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER X. 

THE FOUNDING OF THE FREE STATE, 1885. 

.▲OB 

The European Conference — A new State — Stanley's 
Treaties with the Chiefs — Objects of the Conference — 
Free Trade guaranteed — French Territory in West 
Africa — The International Association and Portugal — 
The Congo Free State — 1,500,000 square miles ! — Stan- 
ley's Labors — King Leopold's Liberality — Administra- 
tion of the Free State 169 

CHAPTER XI. 

COMPARATIVE REST, 1886-1887. 

A Lull — Stanley's Critics — His Justification — Living- 
stone's Trials — The Fall of Khartoum and the State of 
the Soudan — Emin Pasha — His able Administration — 
The African Slave Trade and its Horrors — The Mahdi 
Revolt — Emin alone — His Rescue determined — The one 
Course, An Emin Relief Expedition — The one Man, 
Stanley 178 

CHAPTER XII. 

THE RELIEF OF EMIN, 1887-1888. 

Organization of expedition — Tippu Tib — Ascent of the 
Congo — Yambuya — Off into the unknown — Silence and 
suspense — False tidings — Stanley's letters — Marching to 
Lake Albert — The eternal forest — Disease — Famine — 
Fighting and heavy losses — Fruitful Ibwiri — Hostile 
Baregga— The N'yanza— Emin 194 

CHAPTER XIII. 

DARK DAYS, 1888-1889. 

Emin's position — Stanley's return for the rear-guard — Its 
fate — Stanley again en route to the Lake — " Starvation 
Camp " — No news, bad news — A great rebellion — Emin 
and Jephson prisoners — Jephson's escape — Emin's 
arrival at Stanley's camp 215 



CONTENTS. xiii 

CHAPTER XIV. 

HOMEWARD WITH HONOR, 1889. 

PAGE 

Emin's doubts and decision — Surgeon Parke — The start 
for the coast — Stanley's illness — The Semliki Valley — 
Ascent of Ruwenzori — The " Albert Edward N'yanza " 
— Another new discovery — Mr. Mackay — Mpwapwa — 
Nearing the end — Entry into Bagamoyo — Emin's ac- 
cident and recovery — A world-wide welcome 234 

CHAPTER XV. 

CROWNED WITH HONORS 256 

CHAPTER XVI. 

COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE 280 



HEKRY M. STANLEY. 



CHAPTER I. 

EARLY YEARS. 

In the northern division of the Principality of 
Wales there are many interesting and ancient 
towns, set in an environment of nature at once 
rugged and beautiful, which have played an im- 
portant part in the history of the connection be- 
tween the Teutonic and Keltic races. Yielding 
to none in point of historical interest or natural 
beauty, the town of Denbigh has added to its 
claims upon the respect of Britons, and, indeed, 
in this instance, of the whole world, by giving 
birth to the most intrepid and successful explorer 
of the age. 

On a sloping eminence in the valley of the 
Clwyd there stands the town and what remains 
of the castle of Denbigh. The fortress — naturally 
— crowns the hill, and in its immediate vicinity, 



2 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

and at one time under the protecting shadow of 
its walls, there nestles the older part of the town. 
As civilization advanced, and the arts of war 
were replaced by those of peace, the growing 
community issued from its huddled home, and, 
"safe from war's alarms," raised the modern 
part of the town of Denbigh on the slopes of the 
hill and even in the valley itself. That valley 
forms a scene of uncommon beauty. On every 
side, save northward, the horizon is hacked into 
an infinity of form by the rugged peaks of the 
Cambrian range. In the distance, the summits 
of mountains rear their splintered crags above 
the rounded contours of the nearer hills. As the 
latter decline in height and become less imposing, 
they gain in richness and beauty, and the Clwyd 
finally runs through a gently sloping valley, 
enclosed by wooded hills. 

At no time during the present century has 
Denbigh risen above the position of an ordinary 
market-town, and its general character has in no 
way differed from the accepted type— "dull and 
drowsy " on every day in the week save one — 
that of the market. The castle has long been in 
ruins, and within its ancient bounds, among the 
moss-grown piles of stone, there has arisen a 
group of cottages, inhabited by the poorer class. 



EARLY YEARS. 3 

Here begins the main thoroughfare of Denbigh, 
cautiously winding its way down the slope of the 
hill, and straightening out as it reaches the 
modern town and the level of the river valley. 
Standing in the castle grounds, one's eye takes 
in the whole of the town, with a moment's glance, 
as it lies below, and then travels along the sylvan 
beauty of the vale of Clwyd — onward and up- 
ward until it is arrested by the peaks and passes 
of the distant range, by the glistening crown of 
Snowdon himself. In a glance the eye passes 
from art to nature, from the cultivated wealth 
of the plain to the desolation of the mountain-top. 
There is an element of contrast in the scene, 
which is rare indeed in Britain. 

Amid such surroundings Henry Stanley first 
drew breath, and spent his earliest years. But 
not as Henry Stanley. His patronymic was Eol- 
lant, afterwards anglicized into Eowlands, and 
his Christian name John. In after years, as we 
shall see, he saw fit to alter these names, and 
adopt the designation under which he has earned 
honor for both his native and adopted countries, 
and made his name " familiar in our mouths as 
household words." 

John Rollant — H. M. Stanley — was born in the 
year 1841, and, be it noted, amid humble sur- 



4 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

roundings. His parents lived in the cottage of 
his maternal grandfather, whose name was Moses 
Parry, and who combined in his careful person 
the trades of butcher and grazier. A home had 
not been provided for them by the paternal grand- 
father, who was a fairly well-to-do farmer in the 
neighborhood, and enjoyed a considerable degree 
of local fame for his convivial propensities, and 
it is supposed that the old man, who was of an 
extremely careful if not parsimonious nature, 
disapproved of his son's marriage on the ground 
of improvidence. At any rate it is certain that 
the John Rollant, in whom we are interested, was 
born in Parry's cottage, and that his parents had 
taken up their quarters there from the first. 
This cottage was one of those to which reference 
has been made as standing within the ancient 
precincts of Denbigh Castle, and, in fact, the little 
quarter they formed was usually called "The 
Castle." 

About two years after the birth of the child the 
household was broken up by the hand of death. 
Moses Parry and John Rollant, senior, died with- 
in a short time of each other ; the mother had to 
go out to service, and the child was looked after 
by a kindly neighbor who occupied another cot- 
tage in the Castle precincts. At the end of two 



EARLY YEARS. 5 

more years the slender resources which paid for his 
support came to an end, and again a change had 
to be made. This time, however, the change was 
a radical one, for the child was sent to the Work- 
house School of St. Asaph, a few miles distant 
from his birthplace. This was his first journey 
in life. 

The years between 1845 and 1856, JohnEollant, 
or Rowlands as he was now called, spent in the 
little world of School, and from what can be 
gathered of his character when there, he early 
gave evidence of such powers as belong to a born 
leader of men. To an intelligence which was re- 
markably keen, he added a determined will and 
high spirit. As he rose higher in the School he 
assumed a command over his fellows which made 
him a ringleader in many a boyish escapade ; but 
be it added, to his credit, he was valued for his 
general good influence by the master, one John 
Williams. It is noteworthy that, even in these 
early years, he showed a preference for the study 
of arithmetic and geography, and thus gave prom- 
ise of the brilliant business habits and geo- 
graphical instincts with which, in later years, the 
world has been made so familiar. 

It is pretty certain that John Rowlands ran 
away from school, though it is difficult to state 



6 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

what led him to take such a step. This happened 
in May, 1856. For a short time longer he acted 
as pupil teacher in a national school, of which 
his cousin was master. At this period he is de- 
scribed as "a full-faced, stubborn, self-willed, 
round-headed, uncompromising, deep fellow. He 
was particularly strong in trunk, but not very 
smart or elegant about the legs, which were dis- 
proportionately short. His temperament was 
unusually sensitive ; he could stand no chaff nor 
the least bit of humor." It is not surprising 
therefore that, after a short trial at teaching the 
" young idea," he threw up the task, and sought 
a more suitable outlet for his powers. He had 
eagerly read about foreign countries and the ad- 
ventures of travelers, and it seems he early made 
up his mind to emulate their deeds. The first 
step had to be taken, and in his case this was an 
easy one. To tramp from Denbigh to Liverpool, 
even though he had but a few pence in his pockets, 
was a simple task for one of his determination 
and spirit. And so it came to pass that, at the 
age of sixteen years, John Eowlands found him- 
self on board a sailing ship bound for New Or- 
leans, the most brilliant and tropical, though 
not the most attractive, city in the United 
States. 



EARLY YEARS. 7 

On arriving at that city, the lad started on his 
search for work, and after a short time found it 
in the office of a merchant named Stanley. In 
his employer he found also a friend, and ulti- 
mately a father. For Mr. Stanley, who was child- 
less, in course of time adopted him as his heir ; 
and it was in consequence of this that John Eow- 
lands assumed the designation by which he has 
ever since been known — that of Henry Morton 
Stanley. 

But, though his lines had fallen in pleasant 
places, the hopes of young Stanley were destined 
to be soon shattered. Mr. Stanley died suddenly 
and intestate ; relatives claimed his property ; 
and once more had the adventurous youth to trust 
to his own ready-wit and strong right arm for 
the means of existence. And although for the 
next two years or so there is no record of his do- 
ings, it goes without saying that, in the great 
Eepublic of the West, such as he would find no 
difficulty in earning his daily bread. And it is 
quite possible that Stanley might have drifted 
into some narrow groove, and there remained for 
the rest of his life, had not an event occurred 
which shook the Republic to its foundation, held 
the civilized world spell-bound with horror, and 
developed his adventurous and danger-loving 



8 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

nature to such an extent that Stanley has been 
a nomad and an adventurer ever since. 

This event was the breaking out of the Ameri- 
can Civil War. 

Stanley, as a Southerner by adoption, joined 
the Confederate Army, and under General John- 
stone fought in several battles, till, in that of 
Pittsburgh Landing, he was taken prisoner. 
With characteristic daring, however, he managed 
to escape — swimming across a river under a fusi- 
lade of bullets — and soon after returned to Eng- 
land and his Welsh home. 

He visited his mother and various friends, but, 
owing to his being in a destitute condition, did 
not meet with that reception which is the cus- 
tomary due of a returning warrior. 

Thence he proceeded to Liverpool, where for a 
while he was employed in a merchant's office. 
But his spirit had been stirred to its depths by 
the scenes he had witnessed when fighting with 
the Confederates, and, after a few months' ex- 
perience of the counting-house, for the second 
time he worked his passage to the States. 

This time he landed at New York. Obviously 
it was an awkward predicament in which he found 
himself on landing — an ex-Confederate — in a 
Federal State. With that readiness of resource, 



EARLY YEARS. 9 

however, which has characterized Mr. Stanley in 
all of his many undertakings, he at once cut the 
Gordian Knot and enlisted in the Federal Navy. 
This was in 1863. He joined the Flag-ship, the 
Ticonderoga, and after a few months became 
Secretary to the Admiral. While fulfilling the 
duties of this office, he distinguished himself by 
repeating, on behalf of the Federals, the daring 
deed he had previously performed on behalf of 
himself. 

He swam a distance of 500 yards under fire, 
and fixed a line to a Confederate steamer, thus 
securing her as a prize. For this act of gallantry 
he was made an officer. He took part in many 
subsequent engagements, the last of which was 
the attack made on Fort Fisher, in January, 1865. 

At the conclusion of the war, the Ticonderoga 
set off on a cruise, and in 1866 was in the Medi- 
terranean. Stanley took advantage of being in 
Europe to revisit his home, and as his circum- 
stances were in so favorable a condition, the 
welcome assumed a similar hue. In the same 
year also he made an attempt to do some explor- 
ing on his own account, by a trip through Asia- 
Minor. 

This excursion, which he undertook with two 
companions, ended in failure — due, be it noted, to 



10 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

the folly of one of his companions ; and in 1867 
we find him again in the United States, acting 
as correspondent of the New York Tribune and 
other papers, in a military expedition against the 
Indians of the Far West. 

It was on his return from this expedition that 
Stanley, with one companion, built a raft and 
floated it down the river Platte to its junction 
with the Missouri. This somewhat risky trip was 
but another step toward the inevitable end of all 
Stanley's various undertakings. 

He was slowly but surely, and perhaps uncon- 
sciously, converging to the point where he would 
take his leave of civilization, and make for him- 
self fortune and fame in the undiscovered regions 
of savage countries. His first commission, which 
would bring him face to face with the inhabitants 
of the Dark Continent, was at hand, and, although 
his path was not to lie among the Arab-ridden 
heathen of Central Africa, it led him as it were 
to the threshold of the scene of his subsequent 
career. Now, also, was to begin the connection 
with that great American newspaper under 
whose auspices, and with whose unstinted aid, 
he was afterwards enabled to accomplish so 
much. 

On returning to New York from the expedition 



EARLY YEARS. 11 

against the Cheyennes, he was appointed to the 
staff of the Neiu York Herald, as traveling cor- 
respondent. He wished for nothing better. 
The work was congenial, the roving commission 
which he received fascinating to a degree, and 
the salary of £600 a year eminently satisfactory. 
In a very short time he had orders to proceed to 
Abyssinia, for the purpose of reporting the do- 
ings of the English Expedition which had been 
despatched to that country, under the command 
of Sir Eobert Napier, who was subsequently 
raised to the peerage by the title of Lord Napier 
of Magdala. 

Stanley found time upon his arrival in England 
en route to Abyssinia, to stay a few days in Lon- 
don, and see some of his Welsh relatives. It is 
remarkable that, in spite of his frequent renewals 
of the connection which bound him by the closest- 
ties to Wales, so many people should have been 
of the opinion that he was an American — not only 
bred but born in the United States. Even the 
New York Herald, upon more than one occasion, 
denied his Welsh origin ; and in reply to a claim 
made on behalf of the Principality for the honor, 
that journal stated : "Mr. Stanley is neither an 
Ap Jones nor an Ap- Thomas. Missouri and not 
Wales is his birthplace. " Other American papers 



12 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

followed suit, and the public generally were much 
mystified. But time, which reveals most things, 
has long since made it clear that, although 
America was the land of his adoption, Wales was 
that of his birth. And in America the truth of 
this has been accepted and acknowledged, time 
and again, in the most unreserved manner. 

Stanley's career in Abyssinia was, from first to 
last, an unqualified success. Not only did he dis- 
charge his duties as correspondent with marked 
ability, but upon several occasions he made him- 
self of great use to the officers of the English 
staff. He distanced the English correspondents 
by his graphic reports and the rapidity with 
which he forwarded his despatches to the coast. 
In fact, his account of the fall of Magdala was 
published in the New York Herald twenty-four 
hours before the intelligence reached London. In 
connection with this, however, and without in any 
way detracting from Stanley's personal ability, 
it must be remembered that he was being backed 
up by a millionaire, who spared no expense to ob- 
tain early news. The story of the Abyssinian 
Expedition is told by Stanley with a vivacity and 
vigor which makes the work read like a romance 
in "Coomassie and Magdala," published in 1874, 
and incorporating his experiences in the Ashantee 



EARLY YEARS. 13 

Expedition with those of the Abyssinian. So 
closed his first performance in Africa. No won- 
der is it that when, a year or so later, the oppor- 
tunity arrived, Stanley was found, not only will- 
ing, but waiting, to renew his acquaintance with 
that continent of surprises. 

Returning from Abyssinia, he paid another 
visit to his family and friends in Wales, and then 
the war in Spain required his presence. All 
through the cruel scenes which characterized the 
great rebellion of 1869 Stanley was a passive 
spectator — a quiet man with an active eye. He 
was present at the battles, at the sieges, at the 
wholesale slaughter ; for the second time did he 
see the ferocity with which an internecine war is 
waged, and the merciless spirit in which fellow- 
citizens and countrymen raise the cry of " No 
quarter/' How closely he studied the situation, 
and with what graphic power he described the 
result, the columns of the New York Herald re- 
vealed to a delighted nation. How nobly its pro- 
prietor recognized Stanley's merits, and how soon 
he afforded him the opportunity of making an 
indelible mark upon an age already impresssd 
with countless acts of valor and virtue, it is now 
time to explain. 



14 HENRY M. STANLEY. 



CHAPTER II. 

STANLEY'S OPPORTUNITY. 

It was while resting at Madrid, after the fa- 
tigue of campaigning, that Stanley received the 
now historic telegram from James Gorden Ben- 
nett who was the son of the then proprietor of 
the New York Herald, and managed the paper 
for his father. On October 16th, 1869, he wired 
to Stanley in these words, ' ' Come to Paris on im- 
portant business," and on the same day Stanley 
left Madrid for Paris — and for the great oppor- 
tunity of his life. How the two met, and what 
transpired between them is more than a twice- 
told tale, but its interest is such that the salient 
points of the interview cannot be omitted here. 
Stanley may well be allowed to tell his story 
in his own words, and in his own striking 
manner. 

On arriving at Paris in the dead of night u I 
went," he says, " straight to the Grand Hotel and 
knocked at the door of Mr. Bennett's room. 



STANLEY'S OPPORTUNITY. 15 

" 'Come in,' I heard a voice say. Entering I 
found Mr. Bennett in bed. 

" ' Who are you ? ' he asked. 

" ' My name is Stanley/ I answered. 

" ' Ah, yes ! sit down ; I have important busi- 
ness in hand for you. Where do you think 
Livingstone is ? ' 

" f I really do not know, sir.' 

" ' Do you think he is alive ? ' 

" i He may be, and he may not be,' I answered. 

" < Well, I think he is alive, and that he can 
be found, and I am going to send you to find 
him. Of course you will act according to your 
own plans, and do what you think best— but find 
Livingstone !'" 

On Stanley's referring to the great expense of 
the proposed expedition, Bennett replied,— 

"Draw a thousand pounds now, and when you 
have gone through that, draw another thousand, 
and when that is spent draw another thousand, 
and when you have finished that draw another 
thousand, and so on ; but find Livingstone ! " 

With such a commission, and such an employer, 
it is no wonder that a man of Stanley's caliber 
should have grasped this great opportunity with 
a determination to turn it to the best possible 
account. This was the tide in his affairs which 



16 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

Stanley took at the flood, and so was led on to 
fortune. To hesitate was to be lost, to act 
promptly and with vigor was to succeed. 

But it must not be supposed that this was the 
first time he had thought of Livingstone and his 
relief, or that Mr. Bennett had jumped to the 
conclusion in a moment that Stanley was the 
right man in the right place at the head of a Re- 
lief Expedition. There is no doubt that Stanley 
had for some time past been cogitating the mat- 
ter in his mind, and had even approached the 
management of the New York Herald on the 
subject. Thus Bennett knew that Stanley was 
not only a tried traveler, and a man of great 
daring, but also that he was willing and anxious 
to take part in the relief of Livingstone. Details 
had been considered before, and at Paris the only 
question was that of the actual commission. 

The year 1869 was one of stirring interest in 
the geographical world. And not of that world 
alone, for the fame of Livingstone had for two 
decades gone out into all lands, and the whole 
of the civilized world was wondering whether the 
great traveler was really dead or not. An ex- 
pedition had already sought for him in vain, and 
although, in the spring of 1869, some letters from 
him had reached Europe, they had been written 



STANLEY'S OPPORTUNITY. 17 

more than a year before. Autumn had arrived, 
and still there was silence, only broken now and 
again by uncertain rumors, which were worse 
than no news, for some said he was sick, some 
that he was dead — all agreed that, if he were 
alive, he must be in great poverty, and, there- 
fore, unable to accomplish any exploring work. 
The Royal Geographical Society, ever to the fore 
in assisting exploration, and who had, so far back 
as 1855, awarded Livingstone the Patron's Gold 
Medal, were meditating his relief, and the Gov- 
ernment had made a grant towards the same pur- 
pose. But the honor was to fall to the enterprise 
of an American newspaper, whose expedition was 
supposed to be meandering through Eastern 
Africa with no definite aim, and whose leader was 
merely that newspaper's correspondent ! 

For Stanley's orders were sealed ; his com- 
mission was to be kept a secret. However, be- 
fore proceeding to Africa, he had to accomplish 
a great deal of preliminary travel in the interests 
of the Herald. He was present at the inaugura- 
tion of the Suez Canal, and " did " Egypt ; thence 
he went to Jerusalem, and looked up the inves- 
tigations of the Palestine Exploration Fund ; 
thence to Constantinople and the Crimea. Cross- 
ing the Black Sea and skirting along the north 



18 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

ern coast of Asia Minor, he arrived at Tiflis, and 
by way of Armenia reached Teheran. From there 
he visited Ispahan, Shiraz, and Persepolis, and 
at Bushire took ship for Bombay. The journey 
had been a dangerous one, and Stanley proved 
himself to be a good traveler by avoiding the 
many risks which, on every side, surrounded him. 
Similar expeditions had been attempted before, 
but most of them had failed, and in some in- 
stances, with complete disaster. Colonel Stothard 
and Captain Connelly had been murdered and 
Dr. Wolff, the father of Sir Henry Drummond 
Wolff, just managed to escape with his life. As 
a triumph over difficulties, and a revelation of 
sealed lands, however, Stanley's journey is not 
to be compared to that of Mr. Edward Ledwich 
Mitford, who, in the " forties," rode through, 
not only Asia Minor and Persia, but proceeded, 
at the daily risk of his life, across the Iranian 
Plateau, crossed the rugged uplands of Afghan- 
istan, and on arriving in the Punjaub traversed 
the length and breadth of the Indian peninsula 
until he arrived at Madras. To have performed 
this journey with well equipped companions, and 
amid continual skirmishing, would have been a 
deed worthy of admiration, but as the perform- 
ance of a single man who never met with mishap 



STANLEY'S OPPORTUNITY. 19 

nor dealt a blow in self-defense, it deserves the 
highest praise. 

From Bombay Stanley sailed to Mauritius, and 
on the voyage he enlisted the services of the first 
mate of the ship — the first white man to join 
his expedition. At Jerusalem he had already 
engaged an interpreter — an Arab boy who had 
been brought up in Bishop Gobat's Mission, and 
who ever after gave the greatest satisfaction to 
Stanley, and did credit to his Christian training. 
The mate's name was Farquhar, and that of the 
Arab boy, Selim. "We shall hear of both again. 
From Mauritius Stanlej 7- could only get to Zan- 
zibar — his destination — by a circuitous route ; to 
the Seychelles — the islands which " Khartoum " 
Gordon believed to be the home of our primeval 
parents — he sailed in company with his recruits, 
and thence he departed for Zanzibar on board an 
American whaler. He arrived at Zanzibar on 
January 6th, 1871. 

Zanzibar is the gateway of Eastern Africa. It 
is the capital of the island of the same name, as 
well as of the entire Sultanate, which till lately in- 
cluded that part of the coast of Africa which lies 
between 3° N. and 11° 30' S. The Sultan also exer- 
cised a more or less nominal protectorate over a 
large portion of the interior, between the coasts 



20 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

and the great lakes. Situated on the western 
coast of the island, which is about 25 miles from 
the mainland, the town occupies an excellent 
position for commercial purposes. The island 
has an area of about 600 square miles, and sup- 
ports a population estimated at 200,000. Of this 
number about 80,000 live in the town of Zanzibar. 
As with all the Oriental emporia of trade, the pop- 
lation of Zanzibar is a highly mixed one. Alex- 
andria and Bombay, Colombo and Singapore 
cannot show a more heterogeneous assemblage 
of individuals. English and Americans, Germans 
and French, Portuguese and Italians, Arabs and 
Hindus, and a large variety of Africans — Somalis, 
Wanyamwezi, Waswahili, and a score and more 
of other tribes, freed men and slaves, are all to 
be found, in varying proportions, at Zanzibar. 
Europeans are comparatively few in number of 
course, and the most important of the Orientals 
are the Muscat Arabs, who are both landed pro- 
prietors and traders ; the Banyans, who are 
traders par excellence ; and the Hindi, who rival 
the Banyans in their "unco grip " of this world's 
wealth, and their possession of the serpent's cun- 
ning. After these come a huge following of 
Arab-African half-castes, who pander to the 
higher classes while they terrorize the lower. Of 



STANLEY'S OPPORTUNITY. 21 

# 

the lower classes, many of the freed men own 
their patches of garden, and dwell under the 
shadow of their particular fig-tree, while many- 
work on the country estates of the Arabs or in 
the warehouses of the city. In the city, also, live 
large numbers of negro slaves, whose chief employ- 
ment is to transport goods from the warehouses 
to the wharves and from the wharves to the ware- 
houses. As in other Eastern ports, all day long, 
strings of these half-naked " coolies" trot down 
the streets with bags and boxes on their heads, 
to the same unvarying tune that one hears in 
Calcutta and Bombay, Port Said and Suez, 
Madras and Colombo, Penang and Singapore — 
wherever, in fact, there is any work to do, and 
coolies to do it. It is a song peculiar to the 
colored people all over the world — it is heard 
from the lips of Malays at Singapore, Bengali at 
Calcutta, and Madrassees on the Coromandel 
coast; from the colored " citizens" along the 
stony streets and wooden wharves of Charleston 
and the sandy avenues of Savannah ; and from 
the dusky " gemmen" of Jamaica and Trinidad. 
Just as even European sailors cannot pull on a rope 
without indulging in a " chanty," so all labor is 
carried on in the tropics to the monotonous sing- 
song of the black or the brown son of the soil. 



22 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

Zanzibar is an Arab city set in African scenery — ■ 
though neither the one nor the other is absolutely 
typical. Despite the impress which the conserva- 
tive Arab — who though he may change his sky 
never changes himself or his customs — has ^et 
upon the city, the influence of the native popula- 
tion is too great to be stamped out. Though the 
island lies near the coast of Africa, its insular 
character is sufficient to moderate the tropical 
exuberance of the mainland. The town itself is 
composed of glaring white houses, lofty, flat- 
topped, and Arabesque ; narrow streets or alleys ; 
dark and deep recesses for shops — familiar enough 
to the traveler in Lower Egypt, Morocco, or 
Algiers ; throngs of peoplo, always noisy and 
busy, often dirty and offensive. In the better 
quarters and overlooking the bay are the dwell- 
ings of European merchants and consuls, of 
wealth}- Arabs, of the Sultan himself. The 
national flags of mighty civilizations float above 
the dwellings of their representatives, and over 
all there gleams the crimson banner of the Sultan. 
Moored to the quays, or at anchor in the roads, 
are the ships of the nations, the ironclads and 
iron-plated merchantmen of Europe, the swift 
and slender dhows of Cathay. 

Amid such surroundings Stanley began his 



STANLEY'S OPPORTUNITY. 23 

preparations for a march into the heart of Africa. 
He tells us how often he was misled or delayed ; 
how every mother's son of an Arab or Hindu 
conspired with each other to defraud him ; how 
difficult it was to know how many pagazis 
(carriers) and soldiers he would need, how much 
money to take, and in what form and proportions 
— in short, he tells us of all the worry and work 
he had to undergo before he knew what to buy, 
and bought it. It will be sufficient in this book 
to give n simpl c list of his outfit and his followers, 
thereby showing more clearly than many words 
could convey, the oxact nature and composition 
of the New York Herald Expedition. 

Members of Expedition, 

Henry M. Stanley, Commander. 

William L. ITarquhar, a Scotchman, and late 
chief mate of the Polly, Second in com- 
mand. 

John W. Shaw, a Londoner, late third mate of 
the Nevada, Third in command. 

Selim, the Arab boy, Interpreter. 

Bombay, one of Speke's " Faithfuls," Captain 
of the Soldiers. 

Uledi ) 

(Captain Grant's Valet.) 
Ulimengo. Soldiers. 

Boniji. 

" Bullheaded" Mabruki. 
(Captain Burton's Valet.) 






Speke's "Faithfuls." 



24 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

And 18 negro free men. 
8 Odd men (Cook, etc.) 
153 Pagazis or Carriers. 

Stores, etc. 

About 40,000 yards (10,000 doti) of Cloth and 
Sheeting. 

(Cloth is largely used for money in Africa. 
The better cloth is paid away as tribute to 
the chiefs through whose country an expedi- 
tion passes. Some tribes prefer one quality, 
some another ; and so with the color, etc.) 
22 sacks of Beads. 

(Among the tribes of the Interior, beads 
are preferred to cloths. As with the latter, 
so with beads ; some tribes preferring one 
color or quality to another. Eed beads, 
called sami-sami, are current in most dis- 
tricts ; black or white in one or two ; brown, 
yellow, and green in many.) 

350 lbs. of Brass Wire. 

(In the Interior, wire stands for gold, cloth 
for silver, and beads for copper.) 

2 boats ; 1 cart ; 2 horses ; 27 donkeys ; tents ; 
cooking utensils, etc. ; medicine ; powder and 
ammunition ; instruments ; provisions ; innu- 
merable small articles ; 4 breech-loading guns ; 
2 repeating rifles ; 1 elephant rifle ; 2 revolvers ; 
24 muskets ; 5 pistols ; swords ; daggers ; spears ; 
axes ; knives, etc. In all, about 6 tons of ma- 
terial. 

On the 5th of February, 1871, Stanley left the 
American Consulate — where he had been resid- 
ing — and, together with the above formidable 



STANLEY'S OPPORTUNITY. 25 

category of men and material, set sail in four 
dhows for Bagamoyo, the nearest town on the 
mainland. The pagazis had to.be engaged at 
Bagamoyo, but otherwise the expedition was 
complete. Within twenty-eight days of arriving 
at Zanzibar, Stanley had finished the equipment 
of his force, and on the twenty-ninth made his 
first day's journey on his long march in search of 
Livingstone. 

At this point, and before closing this chapter, 
it will be desirable to give a brief resume of the 
work of previous explorers in Central and East- 
ern Africa, and of the possibilities which lay be- 
fore Stanley as he drew near to the palm-fringed 
coast of the mainland. Westward of him lay a 
series of great opportunities, each of which he 
was destined to seize, in the order in which they 
arose, and utilize to his own honor and fame, 
and for the benefit of the world in general as 
well as of Africa in particular. 

In spite of the valuable discoveries of Burton, 
Speke, Grant, and Livingstone, there was much 
left for a future explorer to reveal. The chief 
geographical features of Central Africa— the 
great lakes— had been approached but not cir- 
cumnavigated. It was a fact that Speke had dis- 
covered the White Nile flowing out of the north- 



26 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

ern end of the Victoria N'yanza, but it was a 
question for the hottest discussion, in geograph- 
ical circles, whether the Victoria N'yaiiza, in its 
turn, was not fed by the Tanganika. In 1856, 
the Royal Geographical Society published a map, 
sketched by a German missionary who, when at 
Mombasa, collected a store of information from 
Arab traders. The pith of their statements lay 
in the revelation that there was at least one vast 
lake, extending over twelve degrees of latitude, 
in Central Africa. This was soon to be disproved, 
for late in the same year, Burton and Speke's 
expedition landed at Zanzibar, and on the 13th 
of February, 1858, discovered Lake Tanganika. 
The extreme north of the lake was not reached, 
and the whole of the southern half was left for 
future exploration. Nine years later, Dr. Living- 
stone arrived at the southwest corner of the 
lake, and traveled northward along the western 
shore, until he had traversed about two-thirds of 
the entire length of the lake, when he crossed 
over to the eastern shore, and continued his jour- 
ney northward to Ujiji. Thus it will be observed 
that the whole of the eastern shore of the south- 
ern half, the extreme south and north, and much 
of the northwestern shore was, at the time of 
Stanley's setting out to find Livingstone, a terra 



STANLEY'S OPPORTUNITY. 27 

incognita. In the course of this book it will be 
seen how, step by step, these and other blanks on 
the map were filled. 

Lake Nyassa had been discovered in 1859 by 
Livingstone, and the year before Speke first 
sighted the great lake which he named Victoria 
N'yanza. This took place while Burton was at 
Unyanyembe, collecting information from the 
Arabs. Convinced that this vast sheet of water 
gave birth to the Nile, and heedless of the oppo- 
sition which Burton made to his supposition, Speke 
returned home, and was not long in getting the 
Geographical Society to send him out again in 
command of an expedition, whose object was to 
prove if the Victoria N'yanza were really the 
long-looked-for source of the Nile. On the 7th 
of July, 1862, Speke, with his companion Cap- 
tain Grant, reached the outlet by the lake and 
the effluence of the Nile. It was established, 
without doubt, that "Old Father Nile" issued 
from the bosom of the recently discovered lake, 
and Speke had earned the reward he had coveted 
so greatly. But much more remained to be done. 
Speke and Grant had solved the burning question 
of the hour, but added little to our knowledge of 
the coast line of the Victoria, or of the existence 
of the other lakes reported to lie west of the great 



28 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

lake. The Muta N'zige, Albert N'yanza, and 
Alexandra N'yanza, were undiscovered, and it 
was still to be ascertained if the Kitangule or 
Alexandra Nile descended from the Tanganika 
to the Victoria. Nothing was known, moreover, 
of the huge extent of continent westward of the 
Tanganika, and no one knew that the large river 
which ran northward from Lake Bemba had any 
connection with that which, under the name of 
the Congo, emptied its waters into the Atlantic 
Ocean. 

In 1868 Livingstone had discovered that this 
great river, which was known as the Lualaba, 
flowed into the eastern extremity of Lake Bemk-% 
or Bangweolo as the Chambesi, and out of it at 
the western extremity as the Luapula. The year 
before he found that this same river, flowing 
northward, entered Lake Moero, and made its 
exit at the northern extremity as the Lualaba. 
Following the course of the river as it flowed ever 
northward, Livingstone's steps were arrested at 
Nyangwe, whence he crossed the country inter- 
vening between that place and the Tanganika, 
and returned to Ujiji. It was the dream of the 
great explorer's later years to work out the prob- 
lem of the Lualaba, which he believed would 
prove to be the Nile, but he was destined to pro- 



STANLEY'S OPPORTUNITY. 29 

ceed no further. A few years later, with some- 
what better health and equipment, he returned to 
the southern shore of Lake Bemba, there to prose- 
cute his search for the sources of the river which 
was for him the Nile. On the shores of that 
lake, early in May, 1873, the finger of death 
touched him, and his heroic soul journeyed to 
that undiscovered country whence no traveler 
returns. 

The great question remained unsolved. Did 
the Lualaba suddenly curve eastward and flow 
into the Victoria ? Or could it be possible that 
it followed its course ever northward, until, turn- 
ing sharply to the west, it dropped down a long 
slope of undiscovered country and emptied its 
waters into the Atlantic ? Livingstone had fol- 
lowed the course as far north as Nyangwe, which 
is about 4° S. and 26° E., and it was from this 
point that any future traveler had to take up the 
thread. This traveler proved to be Henry M. 
Stanley. In one expedition after another he fol- 
lowed on the tracks of Burton and Speke, Grant 
and Livingstone, and completed the discoveries 
they had made. He cleared up the mystery of 
the great lakes — he penetrated the heart of the 
continent, and revealed its most important fea- 



30 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

tures, and he followed the wonderful Lualaba till 
he saw from its estuary the gleaming waters of 
the South Atlantic. But first in human interest, 
as well as chronological order, he found Living- 
stone. 



THE SEARCH FOR LIVINGSTONE. 31 



CHAPTER III. 

THE SEARCH FOR LIVINGSTONE. 

On arriving at Bagamoyo, Stanley's first act 
was to engage pagazis for carrying his stores as 
far as Unyanyembe, an important town on the 
direct route to the Tanganika, whither he was 
bound. Eumors had been heard from time to 
time of Livingstone being in the neighborhood 
of that lake, and, although Stanley kept his mis- 
sion a close secret even at Zanzibar, he could not 
afford to march in another direction simply to 
add to the security of his secret. 

But engaging pagazis proved no easy task. It 
was full six weeks before all the men he required 
were engaged, and he was able to start for the 
interior. He divided his force, from motives of 
prudence, as the native chiefs are extremely 
avaricious, into five caravans, and sent each car- 
avan forward at intervals of a few days. With 
the third caravan Farquhar went as commanding 
officer, with the last the man Shaw and Stanley 
himself. The total number of the expedition 
amounted to close on two hundred. 



32 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

The route lay through Ukwere,* Ukami, Use- 
guhha, Usagara, to Ugogo, at which country the 
second stage of the journey may be said to have 
begun. Thence to Unyanyembe would complete 
the stage. From Unyanyembe to Ujiji would 
be the third and last stage. Much of the road 
they were to follow would be trod for the first 
time by the white man's foot, for Stanley had 
chosen the shorter course — one which ran due 
west — while Speke and his associates in African 
travel had diverged to the south on their way to 
Unyanyembe. It must not be supposed, however, 
that it was a wild and tangled bush through 
which the way had literally to be cut. Nearly 
the whole of equatorial Africa is a network of 
footpaths, well defined by long usage. Every 
tribe is connected, every village is linked together 
by means of these paths. Professor Drummond, 
in his " Tropical Africa," has described them as 
being " never over a foot in breadth, beaten as 
hard as adamant, and rutted beneath the level of 
the forest bed by centuries of native traffic. . . . 
Like the roads of the old Eomans, they run 

* The prefix U means country, Wa its people, If an indi- 
vidual inhabitant, and Ki their language. Thus the country- 
near the sea-coast is Swahili, its inhabitants Waswahili, a 
single inhabitant, Mswahili, and the language spoken by them 
Kiswahili. 



THE SEARCH FOR LIVINGSTONE. 33 

straight on through everything, ridge and moun- 
tain and valley, never shying at obstacles, nor 
anywhere turning aside to breathe." 

Day by day the caravans proceeded, marching 
a few hours at a time, and covering but a few 
miles in a day. Although the outbreak of the 
rainy season or Masika, as it is called, was ex- 
pected, the weather continued fine. Through a 
rich and rolling country, extremely fertile, pro- 
ducing numberless varieties of grain and fruit ; 
across open plains and shallow valleys which 
were covered with an exuberant wilderness of 
growth, save in the cultivated neighborhood of 
villages ; through glades of mighty trees — the 
ebony, the calabash, and the mango ; over seas 
of grasses of many kinds, and amid islands of 
tree-clumps or tangled thickets, Stanley's cara- 
vans proceeded on their course two or three days' 
march behind each other. All went well until 
they came in for the first taste of the Masika 
when encamped at Kingaru. The place itself 
was unhealthy, and when Stanley renewed his 
march, most of his men were enfeebled by ague, 
fever, or dysentery, and the two valuable horses 
he had were dead. 

On the 8th April, 1870, between Imbiki and 

Msuwa, the expedition had their first experience 
3 



34: HENRY M. STANLEY. 

of jungle. Added to the obstacles which " a wall 
of thorny plants and creepers " bristling on each 
side of a narrow path — but a foot in width — 
across which projecting branches stretched with 
" knots of spiky twigs stiff as spike-nails, ready 
to catch and hold anything" would naturally 
present to a train of donkeys laden with large 
bales, there arose from the decayed vegetation 
around such a breath of miasma, mingled with 
the poisonous stench of the rank undergrowth, 
that Stanley momently expected to find himself 
and his men succumb to an attack of jungle fever. 
This jungle was happily soon left behind, and on 
the succeeding days the road proved excellent. 
They had now reached the limits of the country 
of Ukwere, and that of Ukami lay before them. 
Lofty mountains loomed in the distance, and the 
intervening ground was rich in varied landscape 
and cultivated fertility. They passed through 
" teeming fields of sugarcane and matama, In- 
dian corn, muhogo, and gardens of curry, egg, 
and cucumber plants. On the banks of the Un- 
gerengeri flourished the banana, and, overtop- 
ping it by 70 ft. and more, shot up the stately 
Mparamusi, the rival in beauty of the Persian 
chenar and Abyssinian plane. . . . There were 
a score of varieties of the larger kind of trees, 



THE SEARCH FOR LIVINGSTONE. 35 

whose far extending branches embraced across 
the narrow but swift river. The depressions of 
the valley and the immediate neighborhood of 
the river were choked with young forests of 
tiger grass and stiff reeds." 

The expedition reached the country of Useguhha 
on April 16th, and here they found themselves 
marching between the mountains of Uruguru on 
the south and those of Udoe and Useguhha on the 
north — a change indeed from the ever rolling 
plains of Ukwere and Ukami. At Muhalleh, the 
first settlement in Useguhha, Stanley met a huge 
Arab caravan on the downward journey to Baga- 
moyo, from Tanganika, and for the first time had 
tidings of Livingstone. The Arab Sheikh, Salim 
Bin Eashid, told him that he had actually lived 
for two weeks in a hut next to that in which 
Livingstone dwelt at Ujiji ; that the great 
traveler looked aged and ill, and that his hair 
was nearly white. Such tidings as these were 
enough to induce Stanley to strain every nerve 
to hasten his steps, and we can readily believe 
how exasperating to a man of his personal vigor 
and promptitude were the many delays and ob- 
stacles he had to contend with between this point 
and his destination. On the following day he 
passed close by Simbanwenni, the capital of 



36 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

Useguhha, but refrained from camping in or 
outside the city, for fear of being hindered in his 
onward march. Simbanwenni, however, was a 
notable town for the interior of Africa. It was 
surrounded by a strong stone wall, built on the 
Persian model, with towers at the angles — the 
plan of the city, which occupied an area of about 
half a square mile, being quadrangular. The 
sovereign was a female and rejoiced in the title 
of Sultana of Simbanwenni, or the " Lion City." 

The caravans had been twenty-nine days on the 
march, and they had covered 119 miles since 
leaving Bagamoyo. When encamped a day's 
march from Simbanwenni, Stanley experienced 
his first attack of the mukunguru or fever of 
East Africa. As he was destined to have no less 
than twenty-three of such attacks before regain- 
ing the shores of the Indian Ocean, it will be of 
interest to let him describe his own sensations 
and the method by which he soothed them. 

"The premonitory symptoms were felt in my 
system at 10 a.m. First, general lassitude pre- 
vailed, with a disposition to drowsiness ; secondly, 
came the spinal ache which, commencing from 
the loins, ascended the vetebrae, and extended 
around the ribs until it reached the shoulders, 
where it settled into a weary pain ; thirdly, came 



THE SEARCH FOR LIVINGSTONE. 37 

a chilliness over the whole body, which was 
quickly followed by a heavy head, swimming 
eyes, and throbbing temples, with vague vision 
which distorted and transformed all objects of 
sight. This lasted until 10 p.m., and the mukun- 
guru left me much prostrated in strength. 

" The remedy, applied for three mornings in 
succession after the attack, was a quantum of 15 
grains of quinine, taken in three doses of five 
grains each, every other hour from dawn to me- 
ridian. I may add that this treatment was per- 
fectly successful in my case and in all others 
which occurred in my camp." 

Proceeding onwards and ever westward, the 
party arrived at the Makata valley, which the 
rainy season had converted into a perfect Sa- 
vannah of slush and mire, and through which the 
pagazis, as well as the beasts of burden, had the 
greatest difficulty in passing. Men fell out of the 
ranks ; valuable bales of cloth, cases of powder, 
and provisions were again and again, through 
the carelessness or stupidity of the carriers, al- 
lowed to get wet — no slight disaster ; and what 
with the swollen streams and turgid pools, Stan- 
ley, who worked with almost superhuman energy, 
found the greatest difficulty in getting his cara- 
van through at all. At the rate of less than a 



38 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

mile an hour, day after day, it dragged its slow 
length along, and it was with feelings of un- 
usual relief that Stanley, with his men suffer- 
ing from dysentery and other ills contracted from 
the long march through forty miles of water, 
sometimes four feet in depth, arrived on the 4th 
of May at Rehenneko and encamped on the hilly 
slopes of the Usagara country. 

The change of scene and climate was naturally 
welcomed, but the beasts of burden found hill- 
climbing even more arduous than wading through 
swamp. 

At Kiora, a village in the valley of the Mukon- 
dokwa, Stanley came up with the third caravan 
which he had despatched from Bagamoyo nearly 
a month before he started himself. Through the 
illness of Farquhar, the white man in command, 
and from a variety of causes emanating from his 
incapacity, the caravan had been halted again 
and again, and its purchasing power — doti* of 
cloth, and fundo of beads — recklessly expended. 
From this time forward the caravans marched 
together, and Farquhar, who continued to get 
worse as he advanced — a state of things Stanley 
attributed to his habits of debauchery — was finally 

* A doti consists of four yards of cloth ; a, fundo ten neck- 
laces of beads. 



THE SEARCH FOR LIVINGSTONE. 39 

left behind in one of the villages on the slopes of 
the Mpwapwa mountains. Though an attendant 
remained to care for him, he died within a few 
weeks of Stanley's departure. The Mpwapwa 
range — some 6000 feet in height — afforded great 
beauty of scenery, and many varied marches, but 
the word upon every one's lips was u Ugogo," 
and every effort was made to reach this reputed 
land of promise, where milk and honey over- 
flowed. 

On May 22d two Arabs traveling west joined 
their caravans to Stanley's, and, leaving the up- 
lands behind, together they crossed the absolutely 
waterless and shadeless desert plain of Marenga 
Mkali. This wilderness passed, they found them- 
selves in Ugogo, amid fields of matama and grain, 
and herds of cattle and flocks of sheep. Crowds 
of men, women, and children came together to 
see the Musungu (white men), who were sub- 
jected to the minutest examination, regardless 
of any personal feelings they may have had on 
the subject. But in face of the plentiful supplies 
which came pouring in, in exchange for doti of 
cloth and necklaces of beads, such excessive inter- 
est in their persons did not affect the Musungu. 
Indian corn, matama, honey, ghee (butter), beans, 
peanuts, water-melons, pumpkins, and cucumbers, 



40 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

together with milk, were among the supplies 
which the country afforded ; and what was of still 
greater satisfaction to the purchasers, the people 
themselves were easily satisfied as to the price. 
Far different was it with the Wagogo chiefs. 
The extortionate demands of Shylock paled be- 
fore those which the chiefs of the many villages, 
through which the expedition passed, required 
Stanley to pay as tribute. Hours of wrangling, 
and all the arts of diplomacy of which the white 
men and the Arabs were possessed, were spent 
in trying to reduce the amount which the 
avaricious chiefs vowed would alone satisfy 
them, or make them allow so large a caravan 
to pass through their country. The chiefs, who 
called themselves sultans, were more or less 
always drunk, and it is but charitable to suppose 
that under those circumstances the dimensions 
of the caravans assumed incorrect proportions, 
and that the lust of greed and pride of power of 
the sultans were similarly increased. Delay after 
delay occurred, and progress proved slow. Chaf- 
fering and bargaining, remonstrating, and in- 
dignantly rejecting the offered terms, Stanley 
found life in Ugogo anything but what he had 
anticipated. The long-looked-for times of ease 
proved a delusion, and the fruit of an ill-founded 



THE SEARCH FOR LIVINGSTONE. 41 

hope turned to ashes in the mouth. It was with 
genuine thankfulness, therefore, that, on the 7th 
of June, he led his caravan across the borders of 
Nyanzi, and shook the dust of Ugogo off his feet. 
Worry and annoyance, even real danger, had 
accompanied each step he took ; and although 
the land before him was but a wilderness com- 
pared to Ugogo, it was regarded by Stanley as a 
haven of rest. He was right ; an unpeopled desert 
is more friendly than a rich and hostile country. 
Avoiding Kiwyeh — whose sultan was reported 
to be even more exacting than those of Ugogo — 
the route passed through Kiti, which lay to the 
northward, to Mgongo Tembo. In the days of 
Burton and Speke this was a prosperous town, 
situated in the midst of a cultivated country. 
But Stanley found here, as elsewhere, the trace 
of the Arab slave-trader, and the devastation 
which marks his progress through the unfortu- 
nate country that knows his presence. The houses 
were but blackened heaps, the fields, where once 
the cattle lowed and the grain ripened, were 
covered with the rank weed and tall grasses of a 
tropical jungle. Gone were the simple people, 
gone the results of their industry ; there only 
remained the marks by which their former exist- 
ence could be proved. 



42 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

The expedition was now marching in a north- 
westerly direction, right on Unyanyembe (or 
Tabora). Passing through Rubaga and Kigwa — 
like Mgongo Tembo, monuments to the iniquities 
of the slave-trade — and marching as rapidly as 
possible, by June 27th, Stanley sighted the 
suburbs of Unyanyembe, and with guns firing, 
flags flying, and the soldiers and pagazis dressed 
in their bravest loin-cloths, on the same day he 
made his entry into Unyanyembe, and the long 
march of the pagazis hired at Bagamoyo came to 
an end. 

Unyanyembe is the central district of the 
great country of Unyamwezi, the most important 
and fertile country in the whole of that part of 
Central and Eastern Africa. It is a vast table- 
land, sloping in gentle undulations towards Lake 
Tanganika, into which the country chiefly drains. 
The mountainous character of Usagara is want- 
ing, as well as the fertile plains of Ugogo ; but 
in their place league upon league of purple forests 
roll away into the hazy distance, and wide 
stretches of pasture, on which ten thousand flocks 
are grazing, separate these forest belts. A dozen 
powerful states are contained within this region, 
and the supremacy is continually passing from 
one state to another. The people of this great 



THE SEARCH FOR LIVINGSTONE. 43 

country, the Wanyamwezi, carry off the palm 
among the people of Central Africa. They are 
well developed and intelligent, enterprising and 
industrious, perfect traders and travelers. They 
are the inter-tribal porters of the continent, the 
prop of the Arab caravans, the reliance of the 
white man. A Mnyamwezi thinks nothing of a 
journey to Zanzibar, and unless his people are on 
the warpath, is always ready to follow to what 
are to him the uttermost parts of the earth — pro- 
vided, of course, that he can get well paid. He 
is equally at home on the shores of the Victoria 
N'yanza or Tanganika, on the banks of the 
Lualaba, or the Kufiji river. Easily influenced, 
they prove admirable followers, but when once 
roused, cowards though they may be, they show 
themselves to be unscrupulous and cruel. The 
caravan of the slaver has wrought havoc in their 
midst, and the rivalries which have given birth 
to internecine war have marred their unity as a 
nation. For all this they have held their own in 
their noble country, and earned the respect of 
those who have visited them on their own ground. 
Little wonder is it that Stanley should have seen 
in this people a glorious field for the agencies of 
philanthropy and the humanizing influence of the 
Christian religion. 



44 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

Central Unyanyembe consisted of three settle- 
ments, Kwikuru in the southeast, the capital of 
Unyanyembe, in the middle of which stood the 
Sultan's palace ; Kwihara in the south, where 
Stanley had his camp and comfortable tembe 
(house) ; and Tabora, in the north, a large native 
settlement and the chief Arab city in Central 
Africa. Tabora, which is situated in the midst 
of an extremely fertile plain, contains over a 
thousand tembes and huts, and boasts of a large 
population. It was here that Speke and Burton 
dwelt for months together, and afterwards both 
Speke and Grant. The luxuries of Arabia, Egypt 
and Zanzibar, are to be found in the Arabs' 
tembes, which are large and handsome. These 
Arabs, who are nearly all rich men, have im- 
ported everything they could need for an easy and 
luxurious life. Persian carpets, silver coffee 
services, wines and spices, and last, but not least, 
extensive harems. They own large flocks and 
herds, and numerous slaves, for household as well 
as trading purposes. In his intercourse with the 
Arabs, Stanley found the services of Selim, his 
interpreter, invaluable. It was when at Un- 
yanyembe that Stanley threw in his lot with the 
Arabs, and marched in their company against 
Mirambo, a troublesome neighbor. It was an 



THE SEARCH FOR LIVINGSTONE. 45 

unfortunate proceeding, although undertaken on 
Stanley's part for what seemed to him excellent 
reasons*; but the expedition resulted in disaster, 
and Stanley, stricken with fever and deserted by 
the Arabs, escaped from the vengeful clutches 
of Mirambo by the merest chance in the world. 
The only result of this hostile movement was to 
effectually close the direct road to Ujiji, thereby 
compelling Stanley to proceed by a circuitous 
route, hardly less dangerous than the direct one 
through Mirambo's country. 

At Unyanyembe Stanley not only found his 
first, second, and fourth caravans, which he had 
despatched previously to his departure from 
Bagamoyo, but also fell in with the caravan which 
Sir John Kirk, British Consul at Zanzibar, had 
sent off, many months before, to relieve Living- 
stone. When Stanley first landed at Bagamoyo, 
he had found this caravan idling there, having 
been a hundred days searching for the few 
pagazis required to carry the bales and goods 
destined for Livingstone. Since the middle of 
May it had been ingloriously resting at Unyan- 
yembe. Stanley secured the letters for Living- 
stone, which the chief of the caravan had, and 
made it his business to look after the goods. 
To this consideration on his part it is probably 



46 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

owing that Livingstone ever received them at 
all. 

The Yth of September was a notable date for 
Stanley, for upon that day an Arab gave him the 
little slave-boy whom he named "Kalulu," who 
afterwards followed and attended on him with 
such great fidelity, and whom he has immor- 
talized in the book " My Kalulu." Kalulu in the 
Kiswahili tongue means " antelope," and the 
name was suggested by one of the native mem- 
bers of the expedition, as appropriate for a lad 
at once active and graceful. 

On the 20th of September the expedition set 
out, this time in much reduced numbers. For 
the road was eminently dangerous, and Stanley 
was determined not to be saddled with inefficient 
followers, or a superfluity of baggage. The 
march to Ujiji was to be the work ofa" flying 
column," the impedimenta or the useless were to 
be left, in more or less clover, at Unyanyembe. 
This was the program, though it was with a 
doubtful heart that Stanley — worn to a shadow 
almost by constantly recurring fevers — turned 
his steps towards the shores of the Tanga- 
nika. 

As soon as Unyanyembe was left behind, the 
white man Shaw gave in. This individual had 



THE SEARCH FOR LIVINGSTONE. 47 

been the source of endless trouble to Stanley from 
the very first. He had been sullen and sulky, 
quarrelsome and overbearing, lazy and insubor- 
dinate. On one occasion, after a scene in which 
his baseness outvied his folly, he had deliberately 
shot at Stanley, who escaped by the merest 
chance. Now, however, weakened by fever and 
demoralized by debaucheries at Unyanyembe, 
Shaw had no stomach or stamina for facing the 
arduous task before him. And although Stanley 
urged him to pluck up spirit and " act the man," 
nothing would satisfy him but his return to the 
comparatively gay metropolis of Central Africa. 
As Stanley had warned him, he returned but to 
die. After an amicable evening they parted, 
Stanley to lead, unaided and alone, his blacks to 
Ujiji, and his wretched weak-kneed intemperate 
lieutenant to find an untimely grave in Un- 
yanyembe. 

It does not lie within the scope of this work to 
give all the details of the journey to Ujiji, but 
one striking incident — among many — occurred, 
that for the light it throws upon the character of 
the petty Sultans Stanley had so frequently to 
fear, propitiate or avoid, may well be included 
even in this brief sketch. Mtemi, the Sultan of 
Maoyara, had absolutely refused Stanley passage 



s 



48 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

through his territory, and forbidden his people to 
sell him any provisions. By liberal gifts, how- 
ever, Stanley induced the Sultan to visit him at 
his camp, and the following ridiculous scene took 
place. 

" The chief, a tall, robust man, and his chief- 
tains were invited to seat themselves. They cast 
a look of such gratified surprise at myself, my 
face, my clothes, my guns, as it is almost impos- 
sible to describe. They looked at me intently for 
a few seconds, and then at each other, which 
ended in an uncontrollable burst of laughter, and 
repeated snappings of the fingers. They spoke 
the Kinyamwezi language, and my interpreter, 
Mayanga, was requested to inform the chief of 
the great delight I felt in seeing them. After a 
short period their chief desired me to show him 
my guns. The ' sixteen-shooter,' the Winches- 
ter rifle, elicited a thousand flattering observa- 
tions from the excited man ; and the tiny, deadly 
revolver, whose beauty and workmanship they 
thought were superhuman, evoked such gratified 
eloquence that I was fain to try something else. 
The double-barreled guns, fired with heavy 
charges of powder, caused them to jump up in 
affected alarm, and then to subside to their seats 
convulsed with laughter. As the enthusiasm of 



THE SEARCH FOR LIVINGSTONE. 49 

my guests increased, they seized each other's 
index fingers, screwed them and pulled at them 
until I feared they would end in their dislocation. 
After having explained to them the difference 
between white men and Arabs, I pulled out my 
medicine-chest, which evoked another burst of 
rapturous sighs at the cunning neatness of the 
array of vials. The chief asked me what they 
meant. 

" 'Dowa,' I replied, ' medicine. ' 

" ' Oh — h ! oh — h ! ' they murmured, admir- 
ingly. 

" ( Here,' said I, uncorking a vial of medicinal 
brandy, ' is the Kisungu pombe (white man's 
beer) ; take a spoonful and try it,' at the same 
time handing it. 

" ' Hacht, hacht, oh, hacht ! what ! eh ! what 
strong beer the white men have ! Oh, how my 
throat burns ! ' 

" 'Ah, but it is good,' said I, 'a little of it 
makes men feel strong and good ; but too much 
of it makes men bad and they die.' 

" ' Let me have some,' said one of the chiefs, 
' and me,' 'and me,' 'and me,' as soon as each 
had tasted. 

"I next produced a bottle of concentrated am- 
monia, which, as I explained, was for snake- 



50 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

bites and headaches. The Sultan immediately 
complained he had a headache and must have a 
little. Telling him to close his eyes, I suddenly 
uncorked the bottle and presented it to His Maj- 
esty's nose. The effect was magical, for he fell 
back as if shot, and such contortions as his fea- 
tures underwent are indescribable. His chiefs 
roared with laughter, and clapped their hands, 
pinched each other, snapped their fingers, and 
committed many other ludicrous things. I verily 
believe that if such a scene was presented on any 
stage in the world the effect of it would be visible 
instantaneously on the audience — that had they 
seen it as I saw it, they would have laughed 
themselves to hysteria and madness. Finally the 
Sultan recovered himself, great tears rolling down 
his cheeks, and his features quivering with laugh- 
ter ; then he slowly uttered the word ' Kali,* hot, 
strong, quick, or ardent medicine. He required 
no more, but the other chiefs pushed forward to 
get one wee sniff, which they no sooner had than 
all went into paroxysms of uncontrollable laugh- 
ter. The entire morning was passed in this State 
visit, to the mutual satisfaction of all concerned. 
' Oh,' said the Sultan at parting, ' these white J 
men know everything, the Arabs are dirt com- 1 
pared to them I ' " 



THE SEARCH FOR LIVINGSTONE. 51 

On the 3d of November, while encamped on 
the banks of the Malagarazi, Stanley learnt from 
the leaders of a caravan that a white man, " old, 
with white hair on his face, and ill," had recently- 
arrived at Ujiji from Manyema, and that they 
had seen him as lately as eight days before. This 
could only be Livingstone, for Baker, the only 
other white man known to be in the interior, was 
comparatively young, and consequently would 
not be gray-haired. By dint of large bribes, 
Stanley aroused his men to something like excite- 
ment and energy, and pressing forward as speed- 
ily as possible, paying large tribute at every 
town, if only so as not to lose time, resisted con- 
tinually by the savage chieftains of the country, 
crossing quagmires and streams, and, as the main 
track was infested by bands of warriors on the 
warpath, plunging into jungle depths and the 
wildest parts of a tropical wilderness, on Novem- 
ber 10th, the 236th day from Bagamoyo, at the 
head of his men, he surmounted a steep and lofty 
ridge, and beheld the Tanganika and Ujiji at his 
feet. 

His faithful Wangwana pressed forward and 
gave vent to their feelings in the most boisterous 
and characteristic fashion. There, in front of 



52 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

them, lay the goal to which, through all their 
toil and privation, they had ever been pressing 
nearer. The days of trouble were over, the hour 
of triumph had arrived. 



SUCCESS, 53 



CHAPTER IV. 

SUCCESS. 

All the dreary incidents, all the constantly re- 
curring dangers of the long march from the In- 
dian Ocean were in a moment forgotten ; Ujiji 
lay before them, and Livingstone was in Ujiji. 
With his heart beating high with excitement, 
Stanley marshaled his caravan in order, and 
then with horns blowing, guns firing, and flags 
flying, they descended the hill towards Ujiji. 
The people came out in crowds to meet them, and 
in the midst of the uproar, Stanley was accosted 
by Susi, the servant of Dr. Livingstone, who, in 
good English, told him that the Doctor was in- 
deed alive, though poor in health. 

The news had quickly spread that a white man 
was coming, and all the chief Arabs had gathered 
in front of the Doctor's house, there to await the 
new arrival. For the rest — is it not a matter of 
history and engraved in the heart of thousands, 
to whom the story of the great traveler and mis- 



54 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

sionary has been as an epic ? But let Stanley tell 
his own tale once more. 

"I pushed back the crowds, and passing from 
the rear, walked down a living avenue of people, 
until I came in front of the semi-circle of Arabs, 
in front of which stood the white man with the 
gray beard. As I advanced slowly towards him, 
I noticed he was pale, looked wearied, had a gray 
beard, wore a bluish cap, with a faded gold band 
round it, had on a red-sleeved waistcoat, and a 
pair of gray tweed trousers ; I would have run 
to him, only I was a coward in the presence of 
such a mob — would have embraced him, only, he 
being an Englishman, I did not know how he 
would receive me ; so I did what cowardice and 
false pride suggested was the best thing — walked 
deliberately to him, took off my hat, and said : 

u 'Dr. Livingstone, I presume?' 

" i Yes,' said he, with a kind smile, lifting his 
cap slightly. 

" I replace my hat on my head, and he puts on 
his cap, and we both grasp hands, and then 1 say 
aloud : 

" i I thank God, Doctor, I have been permitted 
to see you.'" 

The whole of the next few days was occupied 
by the white men in talking — sitting on the mud 



SUCCESS. 55 

veranda of Livingstone's house, talking ; talk- 
ing not only of what Stanley had experienced, 
and why he had come, and what the world 
thought about Livingstone, but also what the 
great traveler himself had done in the regions be- 
yond the Tanganika, and how it was he returned 
to Ujiji, sick and helpless. 

Since leaving Zanzibar in 1866, Livingstone 
had traveled over thousands of miles of wild 
country, and met with enough misfortune to 
paralyze any ordinary man. He had gone up the 
Rovuma River, skirted the shores of Lake Nyassa, 
and penetrated into the country of Lunda, whose 
king was the powerful Cazembe. On his way 
thither, most of his men had deserted, among 
them the scoundrel Musa, who had spread the re- 
port of Livingstone's death. During the next 
two years he was engaged in explorations in the 
basin of the Chambesi River, in the countries 
bordering on Lunda. He reached the southwest- 
ern point of Tanganika and discovered Lake 
Mcero. From the southern end of that lake he 
followed the course of the Luapula River till it 
issued from Lake Bangweolo. Proceeding along 
this lake, he found the last link in this chain of 
lake and river, and proved beyond doubt that the 
Chambesi, flowing into the eastern extremity of 



56 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

Bangweolo (or Bemba), was the beginning of the 
Luapula, and in no way connected with the Zam- 
bezi, a fact hitherto unascertained. 

Eeturning to Cazembe's capital, he had struck 
out for Ujiji, meeting with many accidents and 
losing all his followers by desertion — save two, 
Susi and Chumah. After a three months' stay 
at Ujiji he plunged once more into the undis- 
covered countries westward of the Tanganika, 
and though obliged to rest at Bambarre for six 
months, owing to the ulcerous condition of his 
feet, he managed to get over an enormous amount 
of ground. He discovered those large lakes, 
Kamolondo and Lincoln, and striking the course 
of the Lualaba, followed it through the former 
lake and south to Lake Mcero. Thus he had com- 
pleted the chain of investigations needed to prove 
the Chambesi, the Luapula, and the Lualaba but 
one great river of lacustrine character. But he 
was not satisfied yet ; he had still to prove 
whether the Lualaba ran through some large 
lake farther north, of which the natives had told 
him, and so flowed into the Victoria JNPyanza, to 
flow out again as the Nile ; or, whether it turned 
sharply to the west and entered the Atlantic as 
the Congo. Livingstone leaned to the former 
theory, but he was not to be permitted to prove 



SUCCESS. 57 

it wrong. On his return journey down the Lua- 
laba, he was unable to proceed further north than 
Nyangwe, whence he returned across the wild 
but attractive country of Manyema to Ujiji, a 
distance of 700 miles. Here it was, as we have 
seen, that Stanley found him, and in terrible 
plight. For the goods which had been awaiting 
his arrival at Ujiji, the bales of cloth and sacks 
of beads which would have enabled him to com- 
plete his investigations on the Lualaba, had been 
squandered by the rascals in charge of them — in 
riotous living. They had divined on the Koran 
and found, conveniently, that the Doctor was 
dead ! Livingstone was in despair, almost 
broken-hearted at this culminating misfortune, 
when Stanley appeared, just in the nick of time. 
The latter, therefore, not only found Livingstone, 
but, with the amount of stores he had left at 
Unyanyembe, and the unlimited credit he had at 
Zanzibar, was in a position to help him as well. 
The Doctor was both found and relieved. 

It was not long after Stanley's arrival at Ujiji 
that he proposed to Livingstone an expedition by 
water to the head of Lake Tanganika, in order to 
ascertain once for all if the Eusizi Eiver flowed 
into the lake or out of it. If it flowed out of it, 
in all probability it was that river which emptied 



58 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

itself into the Victoria N'yanza and made its exit 
as the Nile. If, on the other hand, the Eusizi 
flowed into the Tanganika, all further controversy 
was useless. The Nile did not find its southern- 
most reservoir in the lake, and the geographers 
of the day were at fault. 

The expedition was soon arranged, and in 
about ten days they found themselves at Mugi- 
hewa, at the delta of the Eusizi. Thence they 
paddled to the mouth of the river, and with some 
difficulty ascended a short distance. The current 
was rapid and strong, flowing into the Tanganika 
at the rate of seven miles an hour— and the 
problem was solved for ever. The Eusizi was 
an influent of the lake, and not the Nile. With- 
out experiencing any privations or dangers be- 
yond those which the ordinary course of travel in 
Africa engenders, the two travelers returned to 
Ujiji, arriving there after an absence of twenty- 
eight days. The route northward had been by 
the eastern shore, and on the return journey they 
had followed for about a third of the distance the 
western coast, and then crossed the lake to Mu- 
kungu. From there they went over their former 
course, reaching Ujiji on the 12th of December. 

It was now arranged that Livingstone should 
accompany Stanley back to Unyanyembe, and 



SUCCESS. 59 

there receive not only his own stores but as much 
as he might require from those which Stanley 
had left behind. In the meanwhile he employed 
himself by copying out the rough field notes he 
had taken during his wanderings, and by writing 
letters to his relatives and friends. Stanley was 
busy at mapping out a new route to Unyanyembe. 
The one finally selected took them by water to 
Cape Tongwe, whence they could strike a " bee 
line" to Itaga, where they joined Stanley's old 
track. By this way they avoided the savage and 
tribute-clamoring chiefs of Uvinza and Uhha, 
and escaped the pressing but unwelcome atten- 
tion of their people, the Wavinza and Wahha. 
Part of the caravan was to follow them along the 
coast, and the boats of the expedition would ferry 
them across such rivers and inlets as they met in 

the way. 

On the 27th December, Livingstone and Stanley 
finally bade farewell to Ujiji, and embarked on 
the Tanganika. A week later they landed at 
Urimba, and rapidly pushed their way across 
country to Itaga, and thence through Utakama 
to Unyanyembe, where they arrived on the 18th 
of February— the 53d day from Ujiji, and the 
131st since Stanley had set out from Unyanyembe. 
Heavy rains had accompanied them most of the 



60 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

way from Ujiji, and Stanley was repeatedly pros- 
trated by his old enemy the fever. However, 
Unyanyembe meant rest, security, and plenty, 
and it was with no ordinary feeling of gratitude 
that the travelers entered the comfortable tembe 
at Kwihara, and found all things ready for their 
coming. 

Livingstone's goods had been much plundered, 
and there was much also that through careless- 
ness had become useless. Stanley handed over 
to him no less than forty loads of all manner of 
cloths and beads, together with wire, rifles, guns, 
ammunition, and a host of the lesser, but still 
indispensable paraphernalia of a well -equipped 
expedition. With the remnant of his own goods 
at Unyanyembe, Livingstone had enough to keep 
himself and a force of about sixty men for a 
period of four years. The Doctor was much in- 
spirited by this sudden access to his broken 
fortunes, and became desirous of starting off on 
a renewed search for the sources of the Nile, with 
the least possible delay. As the Wanyamwezi 
were still at war against Mirambo, it was out of 
the question to think of employing them as 
carriers, and accordingly a considerable time had 
to elapse before the services of the next best 
men — freemen from Zanzibar — could be secured. 



SUCCESS. 61 

This was the mission that Livingstone gave to 
Stanley on his departure from Unyanyembe — a 
mission it need not be added Stanley faithfully 
fulfilled. But it was not the only service that he 
had to perform, for he was the bearer of the 
precious Journal into which Livingstone had 
copied the notes of his journeys since 1866, and 
which revealed in detail the marvelous endur- 
ance as well as the discoveries of the great 
traveler. 

The parting of the two men was extremely 
affecting, and Stanley, who had conceived the 
very highest opinion of Dr. Livingstone during 
four months' intercourse, has given us a vivid 
description of it — only a portion of which we can 
quote — 

" We walked side by side ; the men lifted their 
voices in a song. I took long looks at Living- 
stone, to impress his features thoroughly on my 
memory. 

" ' The thing is, Doctor, so far as I can under- 
stand, you do not intend to return home until 
you have satisfied yourself about the " Sources 
of the Nile." When you have satisfied yourself, 
you will come home and satisfy others. Is it not 
so2> 

" ' That is it, exactly.' 



62 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

" ' Now, my dear Doctor, the best friends must 
part. You have come far enough ; let me beg 
of you to turn back." 

" * Well, I will say this to you : you have done 
what few men could do — far better than some 
great travelers I know. And I am grateful to 
you for what you have done for me. God guide 
you safe home and bless you, my friend.' 

" ' And may God bring you safe back to us all, 
my dear friend. Farewell.' 

"' Farewell.' 

" We wrung each other's hands, and I had to 
tear myself away before I unmanned myself ; 
but Susi and Chumah and Hamoydah — the 
Doctor's faithful fellows — they must all shake 
and kiss my hands before I could quite turn 
away. I betrayed myself ! 

" f Good-by, Doctor — dear friend ! ' 

"< Good-by.'" 

So they parted — the one to carry his news to 
the expectant ears of the civilized world ; the 
other to that journey undertaken to fulfil his 
highest hopes, but which ended with his life 
on the lonely shores of Lake Bangweolo, leaving 
the long-sought mystery still unsolved. The one 
to step out into the fierce light of fame, the other, 
already famous, to pass into the valley of the 



SUCCESS. 63 

shadow of Death. From the closest companion- 
ship and the most confidential relationship they 
passed from each other's sight for ever — but 
never, we may believe, from each other's mind. 

The homeward journey followed much the 
same line of country as the outward, and beyond 
their encountering the most violent Masika 
known for a generation or more — rendering the 
dreaded Makata swamp almost wholly impassable 
— the expedition proceeded swiftly and safely. 
At Eosaka, near the sea coast, Stanley received 
some " animal comforts " from his good friend, 
the American Consul at Zanzibar, and with them 
a few copies of the New York Herald — one con- 
taining the letters he had sent from Unyanyembe 
on his westward journey. Here also he had 
tidings of a Livingstone Relief Expedition, which 
was just about to start from Bagamoyo. 

At sunset on the 6th of May, the Herald Ex- 
pedition entered Bagamoyo, having marched 525 
miles in 35 days, through howling tempests and ' 
inundated plains — struggling, wading, and swimr 
ming, and all but succumbing. The end was at 
length reached — the double journey completed. 
Stanley entered the town with the tattered stars 
and stripes of his adopted country flying before 
him ; with his men wrought up to a state of 



64 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

excitement hardly short of madness, discharging 
their guns and yelling like a company of fiends 
— with the marks upon every single individual 
of illness, famine, and toil — a sorry-looking crew 
— but for all that with the eyes of an admiring 
world upon them. Men whom Stanley had 
known in Zanzibar failed to recognize him now 
— he was so aged and his hair had become so 
gray. None however withheld the hand of con- 
gratulation and applause which the reliever of 
Livingstone had so well earned. None thought 
of aught but to do honor to him to whom honor 
was most justly due. Livingstone was alive, and 
able to go on with his great work ; his journals 
had been brought safely from out of the darkness 
of the continent, and the records of his labors 
preserved ; the New York Herald Expedition 
had fulfilled its purpose and more than justified 
its existence — for Stanley had succeeded ! 

The expedition which the Eoyal Geographical 
Society were despatching from Zanzibar, under 
the command first of Lieutenant Dawson, R. N., 
and afterwards of Lieutenant Henn, R. N., col- 
lapsed. Its raison d'etre no longer remained, 
and it died a natural death. Stanley tried to in- 
duce Livingstone's second son, who was one of 
the members of the expedition, to go to his father 



SUCCESS. 65 

with the men and additional stores he was about 
to despatch ; but as his health was indifferent, and 
the British Consul thought he would be hinder- 
ing rather than helping his father's plans, young 
Livingstone finally abandoned the idea. 

Stanley's last act was to despatch the promised 
caravan to Livingstone in command of a reliable 
man. This done, he wound up his own affairs, 
and on the 29th of May sailed from Zanzibar for 

Europe. 
5 



66 HENRY M. STANLEY. 



CHAPTER V. 

COOMASSIE. 

Before long Stanley was to return to Africa 
on another mission for the New York Herald. 
On this occasion his role was that of war cor- 
respondent — the duties of which post he had vig- 
orously discharged some years before in the 
Abyssinian Expedition. Then his work lay in 
the extreme east of the great continent — in a 
country of lofty mountains and deep ravines, and 
almost unimpeachable climate. Now it brought 
him to the extreme west of the same continent — 
to a land of swamp and jungle, forest and stream, 
which possessed one of the deadliest climates on 
the face of the earth. Upon both occasions he 
was attached to a British army, sent to avenge 
insult and injury inflicted by an ignorant and 
savage king. 

To put the matter in a nutshell, the expedition 
sent against the Ashantees was to punish the 
king for ignoring the rights of the British Pro- 
tectorate over the Gold Coast, and for retaining 



COOMASSIE. 67 

in captivity certain prisoners who, if not English, 
were at least Europeans. The King of Ashantee 
— which is a country having an area equal to 
that of France, and occupying the alluvial, and 
consequently, in such latitudes, malarial plains 
between the Kong Mountains and the Gold Coast 
— may have had some cause for complaint in the 
earlier years of the British occupation of the 
coast. But there was nothing to warrant his 
raids upon the tribes of the Protectorate, his ob- 
stinate refusal to surrender the prisoners, nor 
his threatening attitude to the rapidly increasing 
trade of the Colony. To bring this variety of 
the " noble savage" species to reason was the 
aim of the British expedition entrusted to the 
command of General Sir Garnet Wolseley. 

In the autumn of 1873, Stanley sailed from 
Liverpool for the Gold Coast, where he arrived on 
the 24:th of October. The port of debarkation, as 
well as the chief place of the Colony, is Cape 
Coast Castle, a typical West African Settlement, 
and egregiously unhealthy. Overlooking the 
golden sands, on which the rolling waves of the 
Atlantic forever thunder in a caldron of surf, 
are a few low hills, crowned with the fort, the 
Government houses, and the dwellings of the 
most prosperous merchants. These hills, rising 



68 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

one behind the other, are separated by deep and 
swampy valleys ; and in these valleys the native 
town is built. There is neither harbor nor wharf, 
and the ocean-going ships have to anchor in the 
roads, while their passengers and freight are 
landed in surf boats manned by the dexterous 
boatmen of the locality. All along this surf- 
rimmed coast nature has failed to provide a har- 
bor, and such is the lassitude induced by the 
climate that no attempt has been made to sup- 
plant or even assist nature by art. For some 
twelve hundred miles the land is girdled by this 
raging, foaming wall. Stretching back from the 
shore to the furthest horizon lie plains of bush 
and jungle, narrow sluggish streams, and here 
and there a wide and alligator-haunted river. 
The jungle is composed of innumerable varieties 
of bush, and shrub, and flower, growing in such 
profusion that the tendrils of one are tightly in- 
terlaced with the branches of another and form, 
some 15 or 20 feet above the moist and malarial 
soil, a dense, compact covering, through which 
the light of day can scarcely pass. Through such 
a jungle as this the British army had to cut its 
way to Coomassie, the capital of Ashantee ; and 
amid such tangled vegetation the battle-fields of 
the campaign lay. 



COOMASSIE. 59 

While awaiting the arrival of the English 
soldiers, Stanley set himself with his usual vigor 
to the study of the country and its geography. 
The proprietors of the New York Herald had pro- 
vided him with a steam launch, and in this he 
started to navigate the Gold Coast, and collect 
those items of interest which the world calls 



"news." 



By closely following the coast-line, Stanley was 
enabled to obtain a very fair idea of the scenery 
of the Gold Coast. He saw — he tells us — "tiny 
nut-brown villages, modestly hiding under a 
depth of green plantain fronds, and stately silk 
cotton trees, which upheld their glorious crowns 
of vivid green foliage more than 50 feet above 
the tallest palm tree ; depths of shrubbery where- 
in every plant struggled for life and breathing 
space with its neighbor, through which the eyes 
attempted to penetrate in vain beyond a few 
feet ; tracts of tall wavy grasses, tiger, spear, 
and cane, fit lurking-places for any wild beast of 
prey, varied by bosky dells, lengthy winding ra- 
vines literally choked with vegetation — and hills, 
on the slope of which perhaps rested a village of 
a timid, suspicious sub-tribe. The surf on the 
African Coast is ever a wonder and a danger. 
Try along the whole of the Grain, Ivory, the 



70 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

Gold and Slave Coasts, and there is not one port. 
But, fortunately for ships trading to these places, 
there is seldom a hurricane or a gale blowing, so 
that they are able to anchor about a mile from 
shore. There is never any dead calm. The sea 
is ruffled in the morning by the breeze from 
oceanward ; during the night it is moved by the 
land-breeze, so that ships anchoring in the road- 
steads are ever to be seen rolling uneasily ; they 
are never at rest. Unceasingly the long line of 
waves is to be traced, rolling onwards toward 
the shore, gathering strength as they advance 
nearer, until, receiving the ebbing waters flow- 
ing from the beach from preceding seas, there is 
a simultaneous coiling and rolling, and at once 
the long line of water is precipitated with a furi- 
ous roar on the land. "Where the water meets a 
rock, a tall tower of spray and foam is suddenly 
reared, the wave line is broken, and is in mad 
confusion. Where the beach is smooth sand, 
you may trace a straight unbroken line of foam, 
nearly a mile long." 

Along such a shore, and within a gunshot of 
such a surf, Stanley proceeded in his little snort- 
ing launch to Accra, a distance of seventy miles. 
Here he found a very able officer in command, 
Captain (afterwards Sir John) Glover. By wise 



COOMASSIE. 71 

administration he had endeared himself to the 
natives — the Yombas and Houssas — and they 
believed that of all white men the greatest was 
Governor "Golibar." At the time we are refer- 
ring to, he had been entrusted with the task of 
driving back the Ashantees and their allies from 
the western basin of the river Volta, thus form- 
ing an extended right wing, as it were, to the 
main body under Wolseley. In a subsequent 
trip, which Stanley made from Cape Coast Castle 
in the Dauntless, he found Captain Glover, with 
a large native force, encamped on the banks of 
the Volta, near Addah. As a man of untiring 
energy and great strategic ability, Stanley formed 
the very highest opinion of him, and it would 
seem that England would never have known to 
what extent she had been indebted Jbo this gallant 
officer had it not been for the full and faithful 
despatches of the New York Herald's corre- 
spondent. 

During the man} 7 * weeks which elapsed before 
the English soldiers arrived, Wolseley and his 
staff had been occupied in a complete reconnais- 
sance of the line of march. With a large force of 
natives the jungle had been pierced for many 
miles in a north and northwesterly direction, 
and at favorable spots camps had been prepared. 



72 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

Wolseley's policy was to reach Coomassie by rapid 
marches, take the city and reduce the king to 
reason, and then — the country being fairly paci- 
fied and the route open — to return to the coast 
with even greater rapidity, just in the nick of 
time to avoid the rainy season, and the danger 
and disease it would bring. Practically, this 
was accomplished ; for, although certain minor 
portions of the policy were omitted in the great 
haste with which the General performed his task, 
it is obvious that, had he delayed his departure 
from Coomassie in the interests of diplomacy, his 
army would probably have been decimated by the 
rigors of the rainy season. As a matter of fact, 
he accomplished all that was really necessary. 

To assist Sir Garnet Wolseley in his task, a 
brilliant staff of officers had been sent. The 
mere enumeration of their names — since become 
so familiar — will prove this to the reader : — Sir 
Archibald Alison, Evelyn Wood, Baker Russell, 
Brackenbury, Buller, Paul Methuen, Charles 
Warren, and many more. The late Admiral Sir 
William Hewett — then a captain — was in com- 
mand of the Naval Brigade, which throughout this, 
as in other campaigns, performed excellent service. 

Wolseley led an army of about 4,000 men 
through the 140 miles of jungle and swamp that 



COOMASSIE. 73 

lay between the coast and Coomassie. The white 
regiments comprised the famous " Black Watch " 
— the 42d Highlanders — the Royal Welsh Fusi- 
liers, and the Rifle Brigade — all crack corps. In 
addition to these were the Naval Brigade, a corps 
of Royal Engineers, and a strong contingent of 
artillery, together with several bodies of native 
soldiers. 

On January 6th, 1876, the advanced guard of 
the expedition left Cape Coast Castle, and by the 
end of the month the whole force had crossed the 
river Prah — about half-way to the capital. From 
this point they were in the midst of continual 
fighting until Coomassie was reached. The 
nature of the country, which now presented a 
dense wall of forest trees as well as the tangled 
undergrowth of bush to the advancing army, 
rendered fighting especially difficult. Ensconced 
in the bush and sheltered behind gigantic trees, 
the Ashantees lurked unseen, and from this point 
of vantage poured a fire which was not only 
murderous but rendered retaliation almost im- 
possible. The advanced guard, and the scouts 
under the command of Lord Gifford, a young but 
exceptionally dashing officer, suffered heavy losses 
in driving back the natives and clearing the road 
for the main body. 



74 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

After two or three preliminary battles, the 
most important action of the campaign was 
fought before Amoaful — about twenty miles 
distant from Coomassie. Here the Ashantees 
were drawn up in great force, it being estimated 
that at least 12,000 men were engaged on their 
side. Wolseley entered into action, mounted on 
a Madeira cane chair, borne on the shoulders of 
four natives, "a conspicuous object for a lurking 
enemy in the bush." The total number of the 
British force present at this battle did not exceed 
2,500, and their great success in completely rout- 
ing the enemy was owing to the excellent general- 
ship of Wolseley, the dashing behavior of the 
troops, and the superior character of their wea- 
pons and ammunition. The Ashantees, who 
charged their guns with slugs dropped on loosely 
rammed powder and fired wildly, lost what ad- 
vantage they gained by their overwhelming num- 
bers, and, despite their successive rushes down a 
much broken slope, were finally beaten back with 
immense slaughter. It was estimated that more 
than a thousand of these unfortunate people were 
killed on the field of battle. Stanley put the total 
down at a higher number, but explained in his 
despatches that the custom of the Ashantees in 
removing as many of the mortally wounded as 



COOMASSIE. 75 

possible, for fear of their subsequent decapitation 
— the practise of the West African tribes in war 
— prevented the English from arriving at a cor- 
rect calculation. 

Two more battles were shortly afterwards 
fought, and then the compact little army dashed 
upon Coomassie, which King Coffee had evacu- 
ated ; and on February the 4th the capital of the 
Ashantees was in the hands of the English Army. 
Sir Archibald Alison, in command of the van- 
guard, entered the city at nightfall, and a few 
hours later, Wolseley and his force bivouacked in 
the deserted houses and squares. 

Stanley has given us an excellent description 
of the appearance that Coomassie presented to 
the victorious army ; and, as an account of the 
capital of a great though savage people, it is well 
worth our quoting extracts from it. 

" In size, Coomassie came up to the standard I 
had formed of it. The streets were numerous, 
some half-a-dozen were broad and uniform. The 
main avenue, on which the troops had bivouacked 
during the night, was about seventy yards wide, 
and here and there along its length a great patri- 
archal tree spread wide its branches. 

"The houses in the principal streets were 
wattled structures, with alcoves and stuccoed 



76 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

facades, embellished with mauresque patterns. 
Behind each of the pretentious buildings which 
fronted the streets were grouped the huts of the 
domestics, enclosing small courtyards. From one 
courtyard might be seen a small alley leading to 
another, where the storerooms were located. By 
the general order and neatness of the arrange- 
ments, I am compelled to say that, in their do- 
mestic life, they appear to me to be a very cleanly 
people. 

" Coomassie is said to be over three and a half 
miles in circumference. It is such a city of 
magnificent distances that one could well believe 
it. It stands on a low rocky eminence, consisting 
of ironstone, the greatest breadth of which may 
be half-a-mile. The greatest length of the town 
may be about a mile and a half. 

" Each house fronting on the great streets had 
its lower part, as high as the floor of the elevated 
alcoves, painted an ochrish-red ; the upper part 
was colored white. In the courts, also, the houses 
were decorated in the same manner. 

" Passing down the main street, which was 
littered with drums, large and small, from the 
great kinhassi which sounded the alarm of battle 
or the death-minute of a condemned person, to 
the little drum, the plaything of children during 



COOMASSIE. 77 

the evening dance, we came to the grove whence 
the terrible effluvia issued which caused all men 
in Coomassie to describe the place as a vast char- 
nel house. It was almost impossible to stop 
longer than to take a general view of the great 
Golgotha. We saw some thirty or forty decapi- 
tated bodies in the last stage of corruption, and 
countless skulls, which lay piled in heaps and 
scattered over a wide extent. M. Bonat, a French 
trader and one of the released captives, says he 
has seen some two or three hundred slaves slain 
at one time. About a thousand slaves, offenders 
and rebels, are executed annually ! 

" From the Golgotha we proceeded to the 
King's palace. The first view of what was desig- 
nated as the c palace ' was a number of houses 
with steep thatched roofs, clustered together, and 
fenced around with split bamboo stakes, occupy- 
ing an area 400 or 500 feet square, at the corner 
of which rose a square two-storied stone building. 
In the first court we entered, the lower part of 
the lofty walls of stucco was painted red, the 
upper part white. The designs, diamond-shaped, 
of the friezes and the scroll-work on the walls, 
done in alto-relievo, were bolder than anything 
of the kind yet seen. The columns were square, 
with simple pediments and capitals. The alcoves 



78 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

were spacious. Other courts were after the same 
style as this. 

" The alcoves were littered with various articles. 
One contained a large number of war-drums, 
stained with blood, and decorated with ghastly 
trophies of wars and triumphs, with human 
skulls. Another contained a number of cutlasses, 
rusty sabers without scabbards, accouterments 
plated with gold, old wornout guns with bands 
of -silver and gold, horse tails and wisps of ele- 
phant tails, a great number of iron war-horns, 
each with its human jaw-bone ; and in another 
we beheld any number of tall umbrellas — of silk, 
satin, velvet, crimson damask, and woolen cloth, 
bespangled with bits of gold and silver, or fringed 
with small gold, silver, and brass bells." 

On reaching the square stone building — the 
king's private apartments — Stanley saw, among 
hundreds of other articles, a breakfast and dinner 
service of solid silver, English cutlery, rugs and 
carpets of every description, all manner of swords 
and other weapons, including a sword given to 
the King by Queen Victoria, English engravings, 
enormous silken umbrellas, the regalia, consist- 
ing of crowns, staves, and stools of gold and 
silver, and copies of the Bristol Courier and The 
Times ! In fact, it would seem that the King had 



COOMASSIE. 79 

kept an old curiosity shop on rather a costly 
scale. \ 

" From the flat roof of the palace, which is sur- 
rounded by battlements, a very extensive view 
of the city and the surrounding forest and swamp 
was obtained." The King's palace exhausted, 
little remained to be seen by the enterprising cor- 
respondent of the Herald, and as the outbreak of 
heavy rains foretold the much dreaded wet season, 
Wolseley determined to evacuate the city at 
once. 

Before entering on this step, however, he en- 
deavored to come to some agreement with King 
Coffee, who, while professing a great desire for 
peace and reconciliation, acted throughout with 
insincerity and treachery. Finding this peculiar 
monarch in no way amenable to the ordinary 
procedure on such occasions, the English General 
determined to leave his mark upon the place, and 
teach the savage mind, by means of an "object- 
lesson," the futility of opposing a great nation. 
He accordingly demolished the palace, and burnt 
the city to the ground. The center of the kingdom 
of Ashantee was uprooted, and Coomassie was no 
more. 

Writing later to the Secretary of State, Sir 
Garnet said : " From all that I can gather, I be- 



80 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

lieve that the result will be such a diminution 
in the prestige and military power of the Ashan- 
tee monarch as may result in the break-up of the 
kingdom altogether. ... I certainly believe that 
your lordship may be well convinced that no 
more utterly atrocious government than that 
which has thus, perhaps, fallen, ever existed on 
the face of the earth. Their capital was a char- 
nel-house ; their religion a combination of cruelty 
and treachery ; their policy the natural outcome 
of their religion. I cannot think that, whatever 
may be the final fate of the people of this country, 
the absolute annihilation of such a rule, should 
it occur, would be a subject for unmixed regret. 
"In any case, my Lord, I believe the main ob- 
ject of my expedition has been perfectly secured. 
The territories of the Gold Coast will not again 
be troubled by the warlike ambition of this rest- 
less power. I may add that the flag of England, 
from this moment, will be received throughout 
Western Africa with respectful awe — a treat- 
ment which has been of late years by no means 
its invariable fate among the savage tribes of this 



region." 



Stanley strongly disagreed with Wolseley's 
policy at this juncture. He contended, and with 
some force and truth, that by a little more 



COOMASSIE. 81 

patience and diplomacy, Wolseley might have 
achieved a greater success. By staying one day 
longer in the capital, the great Bantamah, or 
treasure house, a mile and a half from the cap- 
ital, might have been emptied and afterwards 
destroyed. The king himself, by a little tact, 
might have been induced to come in person to 
headquarters, and make the treaty which was 
somewhat unsatisfactorily concluded with a 
doubtful representative of the monarch ; and a 
large indemnity might have been wrung from 
his treasuries. Moreover, by an oversight, the 
English General allowed a large number of 
Ashantees to leave the city with arms, ammuni- 
tion and treasure, when it was perfectly within 
his power to deprive them of everything. Thus 
a force of men and quantity of treasure which 
the king had regarded as lost to him, were by 
the lack of foresight preserved to him by his 
enemies ! " At the very moment," wrote Stan- 
ley in his despatches, " that Captain Glover, with 
a considerable force behind him, arrived near 
Coomassie, after an enormously difficult march 
right across the interior from Volta, and that 
the king by sending prayers for peace and a large 
quantity of gold dust (the currency of all that 

part of Africa) intimated his collapse, the Eng- 
6 



82 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

lish General was hurrying away from the city, 
and robbing himself of that larger measure of 
success which lay within his grasp. And more- 
over," added Stanle}^, ' k this rapid retreat was 
undertaken without the intelligence being con- 
veyed to Captain Glover, who, by acting accord- 
ing to instructions, had arrived close to Coo- 
massie, and was at once placed in a highly 
dangerous position by the sudden disappearance 
of the British Army." 

The very men whom Wolseley had allowed to 
leave Coomassie after his entry, with their arms 
and ammunition, might have roused the courage 
of the fugitive king, and helped him to fall on 
the unfortunate Glover and annihilate him. 
Luckily the king was too frightened to be so 
roused. 

However much reason there may have been in 
Stanley's remarks, the fact remains that Sir Gar- 
net Wolseley inflicted a salutary and lasting 
lesson on Coffee Calcali, King of Ashantee ; that 
he overcame the innumerable difficulties of the 
route with a consummate command of resource ; 
and that he led a force of Europeans through 
nearly 300 miles of a country, hostile in its peo- 
ple and deadly in its climate, with marvelously 
slight loss of life. 



ACROSS THE DARK CONTINENT. 83 



CHAPTER VI. 

ACROSS THE DARK CONTINENT. 

The death of Livingstone, the faithfulness of 
his African servants in carrying his mortal re- 
mains across hundreds of miles of the savage in- 
terior to the sea-coast, and the subsequent solemn 
interment at Westminster Abbey, roused public 
interest in Africa and its still undiscovered regions 
to the pitch of fever heat. Never had such an 
outburst of missionary zeal been known, never 
did the cause of geographical exploration receive 
such an impetus. Small wonder was it that 
Stanley, who helped to carry the remains of 
David Livingstone to their last resting-place, 
registered a vow to unravel the mysteries of the 
Lualaba River, and clear up the doubts which 
existed as to the number, position, and extent of 
the great lakes ; small wonder was it that those 
who should bear the expense of an undertaking 
of such magnitude came forward without delay. 

As with the first, so with his second, expedition 
into Africa, newspaper enterprise and munificence 



84 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

supplied the li sinews of war," the indispensable 
financial support. At the invitation of the pro- 
prietors of the Daily Telegraph, Mr. Bennett, of 
the New York Herald, consented to share with the 
great English " Daily " the expenses of an expedi- 
tion into Central Africa. Stanley was to be in 
command, and his commission was sufficiently 
ample for a man of even his caliber. He was to 
clear up all uncertainties about the Lake region, 
to follow the course of Livingstone's Lualaba 
wheresoever it might lead, and to investigate the 
slave trade, tracing its sphere and influence 
throughout Central Africa. He was moreover to 
represent the two great English-speaking nations 
in a befitting manner ; and no expense on the 
one hand, nor care on the other, was to be spared 
to make the expedition of lasting advantage 
to " science, humanity, and civilization." In a 
word, Stanley was to complete all that Burton, 
Speke, Grant, and Livingstone had begun, and 
reveal, in a philosophical as well as geographi- 
cal spirit, the heart of the Dark Continent. 

Leaving England on August the 15th, 1874, 
with three companions and a huge outfit of neces- 
saries, together with a large boat which he had 
had made expressly for the navigation of the 
lakes and rivers, Stanley arrived at Zanzibar a 



ACROSS THE DARK CONTINENT. 85 

month later. Plunging immediately into the 
hard work of organizing his force, he found that 
there was no difficulty in getting plenty of volun- 
teers. His fame as the discoverer of Livingstone, 
and as a generous employer, brought many hun- 
dreds of the Wangwana — free negroes of Zanzi- 
bar — to his headquarters. Of these he selected 
the strongest and most reliable. All the best 
men of the former expedition were also engaged, 
among them being several of Speke's " Faith- 
fuls." 

The expedition started from Zanzibar on the 
12th November, and on the 17th it left Bagamoyo 
for its long journey across Africa. Counting the 
wives of the few who were privileged to take them, 
the total number of souls was 356. The weight 
of the goods — cloth, wire, beads, ammunition and 
miscellaneous stores — exceeded eight tons. All 
this was carried in loads varying from 25 to 70 
pounds on the heads of the pagazis. These carriers 
received, in addition to their food, wages at the 
rate of from eight shillings to two pounds a 
month, according to their capacity and charac- 
ter. 

The names of Stanley's white companions were 
Frank and Edward Pocock, and Frederick Bark- 
er. The two former were brothers, and the 



86 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

sons of a fisherman well-known to Mr. Edwin 
Arnold, editor of the Daily Telegraph. They 
were fine young fellows and excellent boatmen. 
Barker had been a clerk at the Langham Hotel, 
but, owing to his earnest entreaties and some 
knowledge of him, Stanley had accepted his serv- 
ices. He proved very useful in many ways, and, 
in fact, the three young men were totally differ- 
ent from Shaw and Farquhar, Stanley's almost 
useless lieutenants in the former expedition. 

The route as far as Ugogo, though more 
northerly, led through the same countries, and 
amid similar scenery, as that which has been 
described in the search for Livingstone. After 
traversing the greater part of Ugogo, at Mwenna 
Stanley struck out northwards for the Victoria 
N'yanza, and left the beaten tracks along the 
high road to Unyanyembe behind. Here he be- 
gan to experience the difficulty of passing through 
regions unopened even by Arab caravans. In- 
deed, all through Eastern Africa, the difference 
between the people who live on or near the cara- 
van routes, and those who are remote from them 
is great. If the traveler wanders from the direct 
track, he very soon finds himself among timid 
and treacherous savages, who know nothing of 
Zanzibar or Unyanyembe, and who simply regard 



ACROSS THE DARK CONTINENT. 87 

the stranger as a foe. Kirangozi, or guides, are 
either not to be had, or, when procured, prove 
untrustworthy ; and as the inhabitants of these 
undisturbed regions never travel, the information 
to be got of the countries lying on the line of one's 
march is of the most doubtful value. 

Soon after leaving Mwenna the expedition 
plunged into a trackless wild, the wilderness of 
Uveriveri — some 60 odd miles in breadth — and 
here it nearly collapsed from famine. Men de- 
serted, others mutinied, and many succumbed to 
attacks of fever and dysentery. On arriving at 
Suna, matters mended as far as food was con- 
cerned, but the people proved hostile, and com- 
pelled the weakened and weary caravan to keep 
moving. The first great blow fell on the follow- 
ing day at Chiwyu — Edward Pocock, who had 
been ill for a few days, died. His loss was ir- 
reparable, and it was with saddened hearts that 
the travelers made the first white man's grave in 
Ituru. 

At Chiwyu the expedition had reached a great 
elevation, over 5,000 feet above the sea. The 
whole of Ituru is a plateau, traversed by steep 
ridges. Vegetation abounds, and the forest trees 
assume large proportions, while the undergrowth 
of grass and bush, though thick, enables fairly 



88 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

rapid journeys to be made. Food and water are 
found everywhere, and the former can be cheaply 
procured, the suspicious and unfriendly character 
of the natives alone preventing this country from 
being a favorable route for caravans. At Vin- 
yata, in Ituru, the expedition was assailed by 
thousands of savage Wanyaturu, who, for three 
days, maintained their attacks with the utmost 
determination. In one day alone Stanley lost 
over twenty men. The natives had killed and 
wounded several stragglers from the expedition, 
and, their appetite for bloodshed thus whetted, 
they surrounded the camp and attacked it in 
great force. With about thirty men on the sick 
list, and nearly all suffering from the privations 
of the Uveriveri Desert, Stanley's force was much 
weakened ; but, in the end, by acting with both 
diplomacy and vigor, the attack was repulsed, 
and marching forward on their journey once more 
made possible. By February the country of 
Usukuma was reached, and here for a time their 
troubles came to an end. Crossing wide plains 
and a succession of low ridges, the}^ arrived at an 
elevated plateau, whose rolling downs and open 
valleys were carpeted with the richest pasturage. 
Flocks and herds were found in enormous num- 
bers, and prosperous villages frequently met with. 



ACROSS THE DARK CONTINENT. 89 

The people proved friendly, and porters were 
hired without any difficulty. Usukuma proved 
a land of plenty and peace ; their progress 
through it was barred by no hostility, and, since 
the climate was healthful, was delayed by no 
sickness. 

The plateau of Usukuma trends towards Lake 
Victoria ; and, traversing the thickly-peopled 
rolling plains which lie to the eastward, the river 
Shimeeyu, which may be called the headwaters 
of the Nile, flows into the great lake. Near its 
mouth is the town of Kagehyi, and here, on the 
27th of February, Stanley arrived. In 103 days 
he had conducted his huge caravan over 720 
miles of country — much of it excessively difficult 
— and nearly all of it hitherto unknown to the 
white man. 

At Kagehyi Stanley determined to leave Pocock 
and Barker in charge of his men, and to circum- 
navigate the Victoria himself in the boat he had 
brought from England. This boat, which was 
called the Lady Alice, had been divided into 
eight sections for porterage through the waste 
and jungle, and these were now fitted together. 
Nine days after arriving at Kagehyi, Stanley set 
sail in this boat, accompanied by ten oarsmen and 
a coxswain, for the great work of sailing entirely 



90 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

round a vast inland sea, of which none knew the 
character or the extent. Few travelers, with a 
large force at their back, have deliberately for- 
saken such protection and sallied out practically 
alone into the unknown and unfriendly regions 
round them. But Stanley, whose courage was 
dauntless, and to whom time was everything, 
knew that he could accomplish his self-allotted 
task in one quarter of the time that would be 
required by a large expedition. He was courting 
the gravest risk — but the Columbus of Central 
Africa has never been backward in facing danger, 
nor, indeed, particularly forward in avoiding it. 
Sailing eastwards along the southern shores of 
the Victoria, the Lady Alice crossed Speke Gulf, 
put in at the mouth of Shimeeyu Eiver — the 
" extreme southern reach " of the Nile — and then 
coasted round the island of Ukerewe, which is 
populous, richly cultivated, and about the size of 
the Isle of Wight. Sailing in a northeasterly 
course, and hugging the eastern coast, Stanley 
sighted islands and rivers in large numbers, but 
comparatively few villages. Lofty ranges suc- 
ceeded to jungle-covered plains, and these in their 
turn again gave way to mountains. Heavy squalls 
and thunderstorms frequently compelled the 
voyagers to seek shelter in some creek or bay, 



ACROSS THE DARK CONTINENT. 91 

but otherwise all went well till off the coast of 
Usoga, a country lying along the northeastern 
shore of the lake. Here they found a savage 
people, whose only clothing consisted of a few 
banana leaves, and whose indulgence in pombe* 
rendered their naturally rude manners even 
more unpleasant. Over a hundred of the natives 
launched canoes and crowded round the Lady 
Alice, with menacing gestures and the most 
fearful cries, until Stanley appeased them by 
pretending to go ashore with them. But, as 
they fell back from the Lady Alice, he ran up 
his sail, and, there being a strong breeze, the 
canoes and their furious crews were soon left far 
astern. A day or two later he was less fortunate, 
and narrowly escaped destruction at the hands 
of the people of Uvuma — the Wavuma. As giv- 
ing an insight into the character of many of the 
tribes dwelling on the lake, it may be well to 
quote the great explorer's own account of this 
rencontre. 

"From a small cove in the Uvuma shores, 
abreast of us, emerged quite a fleet of canoes — 
thirteen in number. The Wavuma were per- 
mitted to range alongside, and we saw that they 
were fully armed with spear and shield. Em- 
* A native fermented beer, made from grain. 



92 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

boldened by their numbers they waxed noisy, 
then insolent, and finally aggressive. . . . Be- 
coming assured by this time that the Wavuma 
had arrived in such numbers for the sole purpose 
of capturing what appeared to them an easy 
prey, I motioned them to depart with my hand, 
giving orders at the same time to the boat's crew 
to make ready their oars. This movement of 
necessity caused them to declare their purposes, 
and they manifested them by audaciously laying 
their hands on the oars and arresting the at- 
tempts of the boat's crew to row. I seized my 
gun and motioned them again to depart. With 
a loud, scornful cry they caught up their spears 
and shields and prepared to launch their weapons. 
To be saved we must act quickly, and I fired over 
their heads ; and as they fell back from the boat 
I bade my men pull away. Forming a line on 
each side of us, about thirty yards off, they flung 
their spears, which the boat's crew avoided by 
dropping into the bottom of the boat. I seized 
my repeating rifle and fired in earnest to right 
and left. The big rifle, aimed at the water-line 
of two or three of the canoes, perforated them 
through and through, which compelled the crews 
to pay attention to their sinking crafts, and per- 
mitted us to continue our voyage." 



ACROSS THE DARK CONTINENT. 93 

On the following day these modern " Argo- 
nauts" were off the coast of Uganda, and all 
trouble came to an end. Stanley's reception in 
Uganda was nothing short of a triumph, for 
Uganda was ruled by a great king, and he made 
his power as well as his personal wishes known 
throughout the whole of his country. Unstinted 
hospitality was offered them all along the coast, 
and on nearing Usavara Stanley was met by a 
small fleet of canoes, which the king, M'tesa, had 
sent as an escort. 

Their reception at Usavara was indeed a re- 
freshing experience in the heart of Africa. Thou- 
sands of soldiers, uniformly clad in white, stood 
massed in solid line on each side of the landing- 
place. As the white man landed, a deafening 
roar of guns announced the fact to the surround- 
ing country. Walking up the wide avenue 
between these saluting bodies, Stanley found him- 
self confronted by the Katekiro, or Prime Min- 
ister, of the country, who with other high officials, 
had been commissioned by the king to receive 
the white man. After this reception, Stanley 
was shown to luxurious quarters, and then pres- 
ents came pouring in from the king. If it be 
remembered that Stanley's compagnons de voyage 
were eleven in number, the following list of pro- 



94: HENRY M. STANLEY. 

visions will seem fairly ample : — 14 fat oxen, 16 
ditto sheep and goats, 100 bunches of bananas, 
36 fowls, 4 wooden jars of milk, 10 pots of 
maramba wine, and many other items on a 
similar scale. Stanley was clearly an honored 
guest. 

After giviug the white man time to rest and to 
eat, M'tesa sent for him. Stanley tells us that 
from the first moment he was deeply impressed 
by the personality of the king, who at that time 
was the foremost man of Equatorial Africa. 
Having passed through several courts, Stanley 
entered the throne room. On either hand were 
long lines of chiefs, kneeling or seated, and at 
the end, on a wooden armchair, sat the great 
M'tesa, the Kabaka of Uganda. Tall, clean 
shaved, with lofty forehead and large speaking 
eyes ; clad in a spotless white shirt, reaching 
nearly to his ankles, and belted with gold — over 
which an embroidered black robe fell loosely — 
M'tesa presented a striking appearance. Shak- 
ing Stanley warmly by the hand, he invited him 
to be seated, and then ensued the inevitable 
palaver — the shauri of Eastern Africa. 

As the days rolled by, the mutual esteem which 
existed between M'tesa and Stanley deepened. 
The former found in Stanley a man far above 



ACROSS THE DARK CONTINENT. 95 

the average of the white man — bold in ideas, 
prompt in action, thoughtful in speech, affable 
in manner, dignified in demeanor. Stanley, who 
had completed a wide, rather than a thorough 
education in camps and caravans, who had had 
his character tried to its utmost on many an 
occasion, and had withstood the trial, who had 
read enormously, thought deeply, and yet was 
nothing if not a "man of affairs," was just the 
man in whom M'tesa would find the qualities he 
looked for in the European — a man to convince 
the African, by the force of his personality rather 
than by mere words, of his superiority. Stanley, 
on the other hand, saw in M'tesa a sovereign 
whose word reached to the uttermost ends of his 
great country. From the moment of his arrival 
in Uganda, he had heard of nothing but the 
Kabaka. Messengers had been sent at once to 
the Kabaka to announce his arrival ; feasts had 
been made for the Kabaka's guest ; his host had 
told him they were the Kabaka's people — the 
Kabaka's Mkungu,* or the Kabaka's Mtongoleh.f 
Here, in the presence of the great Kabaka himself, 
Stanley found his conception of him confirmed. 
Wearing his power with an easy dignity, carrying 
on the work of government with informal dili- 
* General. f Colonel. 



96 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

gence, M'tesa showed himself a potent influence 
for order and civilization. Insisting on cleanli- 
ness and strict discipline, M'tesa's court and camp 
were an example to the whole nation. Through- 
out his beautiful country, waving with undulat- 
ing landscapes of great fertility, and starred and 
girded here and there by isolated peaks and long- 
drawn ridges, M'tesa made his name honored as 
well as feared. He was a man who in some 
respects was marred by his native idiosyncracies, 
but always, and to the end, an honest seeker 
after truth. 

Stanley accompanied M'tesa to Eubaga, his 
capital, and here met another white man — Col- 
onel Linant, a lieutenant of Gordon Pasha, and 
who was shortly after murdered in the Equa- 
torial Province. Here, also, Stanley began his 
famous attempt to convert M'tesa from the dark- 
ness of Mohammedanism to the light of Chris- 
tianity which, later on, he was to pursue with 
such success. 

After staying a few days at Eubaga, Stanley 
took leave of M'tesa, promising to return with 
his expedition, and re-embarked in the Lady 
Alice y en route for his camp at Kagehyi. At 
Bumbireh he and the boat's crew were nearly 
massacred. Their oars were stolen from them, 



ACROSS THE DARK CONTINENT. 97 

and when they had managed by a stratagem to 
push the boat off from the shore and leap into it, 
they were obliged to break up the bottom boards 
and use them as paddles. To increase their 
danger, a heavy gale raged for two days, and 
they were compelled to relinquish paddling and 
drift hither and thither at the mercy of wind and 
wave. 

At last, on the 6th of May, after an absence of 
fifty-seven days, the Lady Alice arrived at 
Kagehyi, having circumnavigated the great lake, 
and sailed a distance of close on a thousand 
miles. 

Sad tidings were awaiting Stanley. Only 
twelve days before Frederick Barker had died, 
and the sole companion left to Stanley was Frank 
Pocock. The latter, who had been in charge of 
the camp, had behaved splendidly, and beyond 
some ordinary accidents of camp life, and of 
course the great loss which the death of Barker 
meant to the expedition, all had gone fairly well. 
Stanley now devoted some time to rest, but his 
old enemy the fever found him out and reduced 
his strength to that of a child. Gradually, how- 
ever, he grew better, and then began his prepara- 
tions for transporting the entire expedition to 
Uganda. This great undertaking was success- 



98 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

fully accomplished by August, and Stanley re- 
joined M'tesa to find him at war. 

In the intervals of peace he resumed the task 
of converting the King, and, with such success, 
that at last M'tesa renounced Islam and embraced 
the faith of the Nazarene. It must ever be re- 
membered to Stanley's exceeding credit that he 
not only used all the arts of oratory and argu- 
ment to obtain this end, but also drew up an ab- 
stract of the Bible, together with a translation of 
the whole of St. Luke's Gospel in the Kiswahili 
tongue. M'tesa called a meeting of his great 
men and propounded to them the story of God's 
dealings with man as revealed in the Scriptures, 
concluding by asking them to choose between the 
Koran and " the white man's Book." With their 
decision, " we will take the white man's Book," 
the conversion of Uganda may be said to have 
begun. 

The introduction of Christianity into this fine 
country is entirely due to Mr. Stanley's personal 
and direct efforts, and it would be well if some 
of the enthusiastic stay-at-home champions of 
the negro race grasped this fact more clearly. 
Many an unjust criticism has been passed upon 
the great explorer for his ready, if somewhat 
rough, treatment of savages who barred his prog- 



ACROSS THE DARK CONTINENT. 99 

ress or threatened his life. Here we see how 
Stanley makes use of an opportunity if it arises, 
and no more worthy act is recorded of men who 
have been carefully prepared for evangelization 
in heathen countries, and specially sent out to 
preach the Gospel of love and truth. Conversion 
was not included in Stanley's commission, neither 
did his employers require him to add the zeal of 
a missionary to that of the explorer. All the 
more should he be honored for freely and spon- 
taneously exerting himself as he did for the ex- 
tension of Christendom. 

A short account of the fortunes of the Uganda 
Mission cannot but be appropriate here. Its 
origin may be traced to the letter which Stanley 
indited, on his first visit to M'tesa, to the jour- 
nals he represented. This letter appeared in the 
Daily Telegraph, on 15th November, 1875, and 
the following clauses are extracted from it. 

" I have, indeed, undermined Islamism so much 
here that M'tesa has determined henceforth, un- 
til he is better informed, to observe the Christian 
Sabbath as well as the Muslim Sabbath, and the 
great captains have unanimously consented to 
this. He has further caused the Ten Command- 
ments of Moses to be written on a board for his 
daily perusal — for M'tesa can read Arabic — as 

'LofC. 



100 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

well as the Lord's Prayer and the golden com- 
mandment of our Saviour, 6 Thou shalt love thy 
neighbour as thyself.' " 

" Oh, that some pious, practical missionary 
would come here ! 

"It is not the mere preacher, however, that is 
wanted here. ... It is the practical Christian 
tutor, who can teach people how to become Chris- 
tians, cure their diseases, construct dwellings, 
understand and exemplify agriculture, and turn 
his hand to anything, like a sailor — this is the 
man who is wanted. He must be tied to no 
church or sect, but profess God and His Son, and 
the moral law, and live a blameless Christian, in- 
spired by liberal principles, charity to all men, 
and devout faith in heaven. He must belong to 
no nation in particular, but to the entire white 
race." 

Such being the tenor of Stanley's letter, it is 
not surprising that wealthy Christians at home 
should have responded liberally. In a short time 
about £25,000 were contributed for the special 
purpose of the Uganda Mission. In June, 1876, 
a well-equipped party of eight arrived at Zan- 
zibar. Sickness and death brought down this 
number to five, of whom one died on reaching 
the southern end of the lake. Here the com- 



ACROSS THE DARK CONTINENT. 101 

mander of the expedition, Lieutenant Shergold 
Smith, R. N., received a letter from M'tesa, writ- 
ten in English by a young African Christian 
whom Stanley had left with M'tesa. The letter 

ran: — 

" My second letter. 

To My Dear Friend 

Wite men 

I send this my servant 

that you may come quickly 

and therefor I pray you 

come to me quickly and 

let not this my servant 

come without you 

and send my salaam to 

Lakonge King of Ukerewe 

and Kaduma Mwanangwa 

of Kageye and Songoro. v 

This from me M'tesa King of Uganda. 7 ' 

In reply to this, Lieut. Smith and the Eev. C. T. 
Wilson sailed across the lake, and arrived at 
Rubaga on 30th June, 1877. They were warmly 
received by M'tesa, and at once set to work. 
Lieut. Smith, however, returned for one of the 
members left behind at Ukerewe, and soon after 
they were both killed in a fight arising out of a 
quarrel between the King of Ukerewe and an 



102 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

Arab. Mr. "Wilson, who was thus left alone in 
Uganda, was subsequently joined by Mr. A. M. 
Mackay, who was destined to become the leading 
figure of the mission. More missionaries fol- 
lowed, but early in 1879 difficulties arose from 
the hostility of the Arabs and the arrival of some 
French Eoman Catholic priests. Ultimately, 
M'tesa, under the influence of a " sorceress," pro- 
hibited both Mohammedanism and Christianity. 
In 1880 matters looked very dark, but in the fol- 
lowing year an improvement took place. M'tesa 
sent Envoys to the Queen, and the missionaries 
were allowed more freedom. Their work as 
builders, carpenters, smiths, farmers, and doc- 
tors, etc., began to influence the people, and 
found favor with the King. Toiling constantly 
in the garden of the Lord, they had begun to 
gather of the fruit of their labors, when M'tesa 
died — in 1884 — and Mwanga, his son, was chosen 
in his stead. 

Unfortunately, Mwanga possessed only the 
vices of his father, and although the mission- 
aries were for a while allowed to continue their 
work, he soon began to persecute the native 
Christians. About the same time came alarm- 
ing rumors of German annexation in Eastern 
Africa ; and when, in 1885, Bishop Hannington 



ACROSS THE DARK CONTINENT. 103 

traveled through Usoga on his way to Uganda, 
by land instead of across the lake, Mwanga was 
both angry and afraid. Usoga on the east of 
Uganda was his vulnerable point, and from that 
quarter he expected the Germans ; so when he 
heard of a white man of distinction "entering 
his house by the back door," he sent orders for his 
execution. How Hannington died is now well 
known. 

Matters soon grew worse, and in 1886 the fires 
of persecution were lighted. By torture and 
hunger, fire and sword, the native Christians 
gained the martyr's crown. At the end of 1886 
the missionaries had all been sent away, except- 
ing Mr. Mackay. For the next eleven months 
he was alone. In 1887 he too was driven away, 
but Mwanga asked for Mr. Gordon, the identity 
of whose name with that of Gordon Pasha pleased 
him, to be sent in his place. Gordon was soon 
joined by Mr. Walker, whom Mwanga received 
with honor. 

All went well for a time, but on January 11th, 
1889, a telegram arrived in England with the 
news that the missionaries had been plundered 
and expelled ; that Mwanga was deposed and 
made a prisoner ; and that the Arabs were 
triumphant and boasting of the victory of Islam. 



104: HENRY M. STANLEY. 

Thus for the present the mission is at a stand- 
still. The Arabs are foreigners and not natives 
of Uganda, and hate the English for their deter- 
mined opposition to that dreadful traffic in slaves 
which makes them rich ; and it is therefore to 
these Arab slave-traders, and not to the king or 
people of Uganda, that we must look for the 
cause of this sudden collapse. While awaiting 
the course of events, in the fulness of God's own 
time, and hoping for the best, it should cheer 
those interested in the mission on the shores of 
the N'yanza, to remember that the Arabs an&not 
Uganda rejected the Christianity Stanley had 
planted in the country. 



ACROSS THE DARK CONTINENT. 105 



CHAPTER VII. 

ACROSS THE DARK CONTINENT — continued. 

Now till November was M'tesa free to listen to 
Stanley's plans for further exploration. He had 
to subjugate the outlying and rebellious people 
of Uvuma, and neither time nor men could be 
spared to further the white man's wishes. Stan- 
ley had completely circumnavigated the great Vic- 
toria N'yanza, and had proved that its sole out- 
let was over the Ripon falls, from the foot of 
which the Victoria Nile began. He had reduced 
Speke's guess of 29,000 square miles, as the area 
of the lake, to 21,000 ; had made himself acquaint- 
ed with the countries surrounding the lake and 
their inhabitants ; and had altogether journeyed 
nearly 2,000 miles on the lake itself. 

He now wished to proceed to Lakes Muta Nzige" 
and Albert, to investigate their extent and 
nature, and ascertain the character of the people 
dwelling on their shores. To this end M'tesa 
gave him an escort to conduct him to Muta 
Nzige. To the Albert N'yanza he could not go, 



106 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

for the native states which lay on the line of the 
march were engaged in one of their ferocious 
wars, and the danger to the expedition was too 
great. Rejoining his camp, which, during 
JVFtesa's campaign, had been pitched at Dumo, he 
marched to Muta Nzige with an escort of over 
2,000 Waganda. When at the very brink of 
further discoveries, on the shore of that great 
arm of the inland sea which he called Beatrice 
Gulf, the vaunted courage of the Waganda lead- 
ers, and all the great deeds they had declared 
they would perform, evaporated like the morning 
mist that rose from the placid water. To Stan- 
ley's immeasurable disgust, they declared their 
inability to remain any longer in a country whose 
inhabitants they knew to be hostile, and, conse- 
quently, the disloyalty of these wretched cowards 
balked Stanley of the prize that lay within his 
grasp, and the world for a time of an accurate 
knowledge of this vast lake. It is satisfactory 
to know, at any rate, that M'tesa afterwards pun- 
ished such treachery with his characteristic se- 
verity. Stanley, however, could only gaze — like 
Tantalus — on the receding waters, and meditate 
on the " what might have been." 

On returning to Uganda, Stanley struck due 
south to Karagwe. Here he investigated the 



ACROSS THE DARK CONTINENT. 107 

Alexandra Nile, proving it to be the most impor- 
tant feeder of the Victoria Lake. Rumanika, the 
king of Karagwe, received him most hospitably, 
and from him and his chiefs Stanley learnt a great 
deal of the savage tribes dwelling in the countries 
westward of the lake. He heard from many of 
a lake of considerable size, which he named the 
Alexandra, lying to the southwest, and of which 
the Kagera or Alexandra Nile was an affluent. 
From native information, however, he gathered 
that this same river entered the lake at the 
southern end, and therefore rose in the countries 
between that lake and the Tanganika. He heard 
of wild peoples and cannibals ; of a race almost 
white, and of a nation of dwarfs. To penetrate 
these countries proved impossible ; the chiefs of 
the intervening districts demanded hongo, or trib- 
ute, in ruinous quantities ; and the mountainous 
character of the countries further west, together 
with the implacability of the natives, effectually 
prevented the advance of the stranger. 

Reluctantly turning his steps southward and 
eastward, Stanley marched to the Tanganika by 
a circuitous route which led him through Un- 
yamwezi — within fifty miles of Unyanyembe — and 
thence to Ujiji. Here he arrived on May 27th, 
1876. He set out almost immediately on his 



108 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

voyage round the Tanganika, for it was part of 
his mission to entirely circumnavigate all the 
great lakes, especially with a view to their sources 
of supply and means of drainage. The im- 
portant point to be cleared up about the Tanga- 
nika was whether the River Lukuga, on the west, 
flowed out of or into the lake. Stanley proved 
beyond question that, while the creek of Lukuga 
was so choked with reed and grass that practi- 
cally no current was discernible, yet a few miles 
inland the river, cleared of the tangled obstruc- 
tion, flowed westward with a distinct current. 
The Lukuga, therefore, is the sole effluent of the 
lake, and drains it by a westerly course into the 
Lualaba.* 

Towards the end of August, Stanley started 
with an enfeebled body of men — for fever and 
smallpox had played havoc with those he had left 
at Ujiji — upon his march to the Lualaba. He 
intended here, as elsewhere, to take up the work 
exactly where Livingstone and his other predeces- 
sors laid it down, and thus it is we find him 
marching directly westward for JSTyangwe, the 
most northern point of Livingstone's explorations. 

* It should be remembered that Cameron was the first to 
discover the Lukuga ; that Stanley proved it to be without 
doubt an effluent ; and that Thompson, recently, traced its 
course toward the Lualaba. 



ACROSS THE DARK CONTINENT. 109 

As he advanced, the surrounding country in- 
creased in beauty, and the vegetation in luxuri- 
ance. The wooded hillsides and forested plains 
were alive with animal life, and everywhere the 
villages betokened the presence of plenty. But 
Stanley kept his force together with the greatest 
difficulty, for the people of Manyema, the country 
through which they were passing, were reported 
to be cannibals, and the feelings of the Wangwana 
were thereby considerably exercised. Though 
Stanley had distributed £350 in presents to the 
people before leaving Ujiji — as a " refresher " 
to their drooping spirits — yet many desertions 
took place, and for a time the expedition was 
in a high state of demoralization. Nothing 
but firm treatment sufficed at such a crisis 
as this, and it was fortunate for Stanley that 
his indomitable character enabled him to grap- 
ple with the spirit of mutiny in a masterful 
way. 

For more than two hundred miles the route 
lay along the valley of the Luama — a tributary 
of the Lualaba — and, at its confluence with the 
great river upon which Livingstone had spent so 
much time, thought, and labor, Stanley realized 
that at last he was face to face with a simple 
problem — he was to follow the river to the ocean, 



HO HENRY M. STANLEY. 

and prove or disprove once and forever its iden- 
tity with the Nile. He was to follow it into 
countries of which even the natives could give no 
account, deal with peoples whose very name was 
unknown, and finally trace it to an end no man 
could indicate. 

At Mwana Mamba he met the Arab with whom 
he was to be afterwards — on this and other 
expeditions — so closely connected, Hamed Bin 
Mohammed, alias Tippu Tib. Stanley says of 
him: — " He was a tall, black-bearded man, of 
negroid complexion, in the prime of life, straight 
and quick in his movements, a picture of energy 
and strength. He had a fine intelligent face, 
with a nervous twitching of the eyes, and gleam- 
ing white and perfectly formed teeth. . . . With 
the air of a well-bred Arab, and almost courtier- 
like in his manner, he welcomed me, and his 
slaves being ready at hand with mat and bolster, 
he reclined vis-a-vis, while a buzz of admiration 
of his style was perceptible from the onlookers. 
After regarding him for a few minutes, I came 
to the conclusion that this Arab was a remark- 
able man — the most remarkable man I had met 
among Arabs, Waswahili, and half-castes in 
Africa. He was neat in his person, his clothes 
were of a spotless white, his fez-cap brand new, 




WMff'i 

mm 

■. ■■<"■•; j «»l-W. .•■■.'.•'".■.-'•■:•••'''.-■.'■>' ■'VvVA'"- ■:. . Vt< . «- ' 



TIPPU TIB.— Page 110. 
(Hamed Bin Mohammed.) 



Henry M. Stanley. 



ACROSS THE DARK CONTINENT. m 

his waist was encircled by a rich dowee, his 
dagger was splendid with silver filagree, and his 
tout ensemble was that of an Arab gentleman in 
very comfortable circumstances." 

From Tippu Tib, Stanley heard the welcome 
news that Lieutenant Cameron, who arrived at 
Nyangwe on that adventurous journey which 
ultimately led him across Africa, had been pre- 
vented from proceeding down the Lualaba by the 
want of canoes, the disloyalty of his men, and 
the enormous difficulties stated by the Arabs to 
exist. Cameron, therefore, had turned back, and 
journeying southward through Rua, fell in with 
a number of Portuguese traders, in whose com- 
pany he traveled to Benguela. 

The most terrible tales were told by the Arabs of 
the savages dwelling on the banks of the Lualaba. 
Dwarfs who shot with poisoned arrows, cannibals 
who regarded the stranger as so much meat, 
barbarians who wore no clothing and killed all 
men they met — these were some of the people to 
be met on the river, which in itself presented 
great difficulties. There were many falls and 
many rocks ; and the river flowed northward for- 
ever and knew no end ! In the face of such tes- 
timony from men who had traveled for some 
distance down the river, Stanley's intention 



112 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

never swerved ; he was determined to follow the 
Lualaba to the sea. 

To help him attain this end, and to inspire his 
trembling followers with courage, Stanley en- 
gaged the services of Tippu Tib, who, in return 
for £1,000 and rations for his escort, was to bring 
to Stanley's aid his own personal efforts and 
influence, assisted by a considerable force of 
men — about 150 of whom were armed with 
rifles. 

On the 5th of November, 1876, the Anglo- 
American Expedition left Nyangwe — the outpost, 
as it were, of the Arab traders of the Lake dis- 
tricts — and proceeded on its arduous journey down 
the Lualaba. As the name soon disappeared, 
and the river was rebaptized every few miles by 
the natives, Stanley gave it the name of Living- 
stone — after him who had given his life for a 
knowledge of it — and by this name it will here- 
inafter be mentioned. 

For the first ten days the march along the bank 
led through a dense forest growth ; so dense that 
often the travelers could not say if the sun were 
shining or the sky were overcast. Dew fell from 
the leafage overheard in drops of rain ; the 
narrow track became a ditch of wet mud ; the 
air reeked with the poisonous fumes of fungi and 



ACROSS THE DARK CONTINENT. 113 

the deadly breath of miasma. At times progress 
became so difficult that a whole day's march 
advanced them but six miles. The men were 
rapidly succumbing to weariness and sickness, 
and the Arabs in Tippu Tib's train clamored 
loudly for retreat. Even Tippu Tib himself came 
to Stanley and declared his unwillingness to pro- 
ceed ; although by doing so he forfeited his claim 
to the £1,000. Stanley was desperate. If he 
attempted to march without the great Arab, he 
knew that his expedition would be no more ; that 
the Wangwana would desert to a man. By dint 
of argument, however, and the sum of five 
hundred pounds, he induced Tippu to accompany 
him twenty marches further, at the end of which 
Stanley hoped he would be able to obtain canoes 
for the whole of his expedition and take to the 
river for the rest of the journey. 

At the confluence of the Euiki with the Living- 
stone they first fell in with cannibals. These 
savages attacked the crew of the Lady Alice, in 
a small camp they had made on the banks, and 
with the avowed intention of getting " meat." 
After a sharp fight, they were vigorously re- 
pulsed. About this spot the Livingstone has a 
width of a mile, and flows between forests, dark 
with dense undergrowth. Islands, clad to their 



114 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

edges with tropical foliage, stud the broad bosom 
of the stream, and here and there the banks give 
way, and the eye travels along the reedy meander- 
ings of some shady creek. At Ukassa, rapids 
were encountened for the first time, and as the 
river suddenly narrowed at this point, dangerous 
eddies and whirls made progress slow and cau- 
tious. All this while the main body was 
marching with Tippu Tib and his followers, 
along the left bank, and Stanley, with some 
thirty companions, navigated the river in the 
boat. 

At this part of the river, the inhabitants of the 
villages fled on the approach of the travelers, 
giving them no chance to buy food, or gain in- 
formation about the locality. They were obliged 
to take what food they found, for the enfeebled 
condition of the men could not withstand the 
attacks of hunger. Stanley wrote about this 
time : " There was work enough in the stricken 
expedition for a dozen physicians. Every day 
we tossed two or three bodies into the deep waters 
of the Livingstone. Frank and I endeavored 
our utmost to alleviate the misery, but when the 
long caravan was entering camp, I had many 
times to turn my face away, lest the tears 
should rise at sight of the miserable victims of 



ACROSS THE DARK CONTINENT. H5 

disease who reeled and staggered through the 
streets. Poor creatures, what a life ! wandering, 
ever wandering in search of graves." 

On reaching Ikondu, one of the much-talked-of 
dwarfs was caught and brought into camp. A 
little over 4 feet in height, diminutive in propor- 
tions, and altogether puny in appearance, he did 
not seem to represent a very formidable race. But 
these dwarfs are very nimble, and the arrows 
they shoot are invariably poisoned. Soon after, 
when the boat-party were encamped on the bank, 
awaiting the arrival of the column marching by 
land, hundreds of wild savages attacked them, 
blowing their war-horns, and yelling their war- 
cries, and shooting clouds of poisoned arrows. 
All that day and through the greater part of the 
night the contest went on. Early next morning 
the fight was renewed, and continued with few in- 
terruptions till night. On the following day, re- 
inforced by about a thousand neighbors in canoes, 
the savages attacked again, and this time with 
desperate fury. From the forest on the one side 
and the river on the other they came in vast 
numbers, showering their arrows on the gallant 
little band. In the midst of the battle, the 
advance guard of the land column made its ap- 
pearance, and at the sight of the reinforcements 



116 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

the natives retreated. During the night, which 
was dark and stormy, Stanley crossed the river 
to the island whither those who attacked in 
canoes had retired, and under cover of darkness 
cut the canoes adrift and floated them down the 
river to his camp. Being now in a position to 
make his own terms, he rowed to the island on 
the following morning, and offered the surprised 
owners fifteen of their canoes if they would make 
peace. This they consented to do — Stanley re- 
serving twenty-three for convey ing his expedition 
down the river. 

But the Arabs had had enough of this wild 
country and its turbulent people, and Tippu Tib 
declared that he and his men would not go one 
step further to what they knew to be certain de- 
struction. Only 12 of the stipulated 20 marches 
had been performed, but Stanley saw that the 
time had come for the final parting, and accord- 
ingly released Tippu Tib from his agreement — 
rewarding him with a draft for about £500, to- 
gether with numerous presents for himself and 
his chief people. Through the fidelity and cour- 
age of some of the Wangwana, Stanley was able 
to arouse the enthusiasm of his own band in the 
coming voyage down the river, and with such 
good effect that, in finally leaving Tippu Tib and 



ACROSS THE DARK CONTINENT. H7 

his camp behind, not one of the expedition had 
deserted. 

On the following day the little flotilla was at- 
tacked from both banks at once. Hundreds of 
savages with gaily feathered heads and painted 
faces dashed out at them, shooting their spears 
and shouting " Meat ! Meat ! Ah ! Ha ! We shall 
have plenty of meat ! " But they were to be de- 
frauded of the expected feast, for the well aimed 
rifles of the Wangwana soon struck terror into 
their midst, and compelled them to seek the cover 
of the shore, and their meat in more legitimate 
quarters. 

Again and again, as the expedition floated 
down the river, some twenty or thirty canoes 
would shoot out from the shore, despite the long- 
drawn cries of " Sennenneh — Sen-nen-neh " 
(Peace, peace), which the interpreter of the party 
would raise ; the cannibals ignored everything 
but the advent of so much food to their market ! 
" We shall eat meat to-day, Oho! We shall eat 
meat." 

The sixth of January, 1877, found the little 
band of daring spirits at the first cataract of the 
Stanley Falls. From this point for about 60 miles 
the great volume of the Livingstone rushes 
through narrowed and lofty banks, in a series of 



118 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

rapids interspersed with steep falls. Nearly the 
wholo of the distance is impracticable for boats, 
and Stanley had to force his way along the bank, 
through jungle and forest and over cliffs and 
rocks, blazing a path through dense wood, 
and clambering over rugged and precipitous 
banks. The whole of the distance he was exposed 
to the murderous attacks of cannibal savages 
who, while the boat and canoes were transported, 
the necessary roads cut, and the camps made, 
never relaxed their efforts to exterminate the 
party. By the 28th of the month the seventh 
cataract was cleared, and once more the expedi- 
tion was enabled to resume its voyage down 
stream. 

Space prevents our entering into all the hair- 
breadth escapes and dangerous undertakings 
which formed the daily program of the expedi- 
tion. There was one event, however, which 
must be described, as exhibiting with unwonted 
force the truth of the old adage, "There's but a 
step between us and the grave." This was the 
narrow escape of Saidi from destruction in the 
fall below Ntunduru Island. Some way above 
the rapids, the canoe which this faithful follower 
of Stanley had been steering was upset, and the 
crew managed to swim to another canoe which 



ACROSS THE DARK CONTINENT. 119 

was near. Saidi, hoping to save the canoe of 
which he had charge, clung to it. But he was 
rapidly carried down by the ever-increasing cur- 
rent to the edge of the falls. By the merest 
chance, the canoe struck against a small rock 
which, at the very brink of the fall, jutted out 
of the swirling current ; and, splitting in two, it 
became jammed against the rock. Saidi, with 
wonderful presence of mind, clung to the rock 
and steadied himself by the upturned pieces of 
the canoe. The waves washed over his knees, 
and all around the brown swirling waters of the 
upper stream, and the roar of the falls below, 
threatened him with instant destruction the 
moment he lost his hold. 

For a time Stanley was puzzled how to act. 
After a few minutes' consideration, he had three 
strong cables made of twisted rattans, and at- 
tached these to a canoe. He then called for vol- 
unteers. The ever faithful Uledi, coxswain of 
the Lady Alice, was the first to move. 

" Master, " said he, "I will go. Mambu kwa 
mungu — my fate is in the hands of God." 

A boat boy named Marzouk, then stepped for- 
ward, and inspired by example, several others 
volunteered to go. But two lives were enough 
to risk at one time, and Uledi and Marzouk took 



120 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

their places in the canoe. It was then launched 
— someway up the bank — cautiously paddled into 
the stream, and allowed to float down on the 
rapid current. On nearing Saidi, Uledi threw a 
short twisted cable towards him, which, after 
several attempts, he caught. At the same mo- 
ment the party on shore, who were holding the 
canoe in check with the cables, began to haul 
it ashore. But the moment the full force/of the 
current seized it, all the three cables snapped like 
blades of scorched grass, and the canoe with its 
brave and faithful occupants began to glide to- 
wards the falls. Saidi had been knocked off his 
friendly rock in the act of catching the cable, and 
was now hanging just over the fall, and clinging 
like a leech to the one thing between him and 
death. As the canoe drifted towards him his 
weight directed its course against the rock from 
which he had but the moment before been rescued. 
In a twinkling, Uledi and his companion leaped 
out of the canoe and hauled the half-drowned 
Saidi on to the rock. So far they were saved ; 
but matters were worse than ever, for there were 
now three men, instead of one, to be rescued. 

At this juncture night fell with that mysteri- 
ous rapidity peculiar to tropical regions, and all 
further attempts were postponed till the morning. 



ACROSS THE DARK CONTINENT. 121 

Early on the following day, the 15th of January, 
1877, Stanley set his men to make several strong 
cables of rattans. Attaching a length of whip- 
cord to a stone and hurling it towards the little 
group upon the rock — who, after a score or so 
of vain attempts, caught it — Stanley motioned 
to them to draw the cables over. This was done, 
one end remaining with the rescuers. Then 
Uledi, binding himself with loose rattans to a 
couple of cables, plunged into the rushing flood, 
and, half-drowned by the swirling waves, was 
slowly drawn to land. Saidi followed, and then 
Marzouk. They were saved at last ! 

Sometimes, however, there were accidents 
whose fatal results were not averted — lives swept ' 
down the devouring rapids, which were never 
rescued. The descent of the Congo was too 
often marked by death, and Stanley's days were 
never free from anxiety or toil. 

The river, broadening out, now flowed on in a 
distinct westerly course, and this, coupled with 
the temporary cessation of hostilities, raised the 
wearied spirits and put strength into the weak- 
ened bodies of the party in a wonderful degree. 
For not long, however, were they to have peace, 
and in a few days they were passing through a 
running fire from either bank. Day after day, 



122 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

as they dropped down stream, new tribes ap- 
peared, but ever in the old garb of enemies. 
Gradually the river widened to about 4,000 yards, 
islands became more numerous, and the banks 
rose on either hand high and steep. But an 
eternal forest dwelt on the islands, the banks, and 
the interior, and the only clear spaces here and 
there were occupied by villages or used as mar- 
ket places by the tribes of this fluvial region. 
Noble tributaries, from a furlong to a mile in 
width, occasionally swelled the ever-increasing 
river, and revealed by their magnitude the great 
extent of country drained by the many waters of 
the Livingstone. 

Off the mouth of the Aruwimi, which is an 
important tributary to the great river on the 
right bank, and more than a mile wide at its con- 
fluence, a determined attack was made upon the 
travelers by about 2000 savages. They had the 
largest canoes yet met with — some containing 
more than 100 men — and rushed to the fray with 
all the " pomp and panoply of war" which pre- 
sumptuous ignorance and overweening pride in 
superior numbers led them to assume. Stanley 
coolly anchored his little fleet in mid-stream, and 
received them with such a succession of well 
directed volleys that, in a comparatively short 



ACROSS THE DARK CONTINENT. 123 

time, the heroes who had stalked to war sneaked 
gladly home. Thus ended the twenty- eighth 
pitched battle the unfortunate little fleet had 
been compelled to fight — harassing work indeed 
for strangers in a strange land. Truly might 
they be called Ishmaelites, for every one's hand 
was against them, and theirs, perforce, against 
every one. 

A hundred miles or so west of the Aruwimi 
the Livingstone reaches its most northerly point, 
and amid a perfect maze of islands the canoes, 
with the Lady Alice ever at their head, threaded 
their course in a southwesterly direction. A 
greater danger now lay in their path, for, for 
the first time, their opponents were armed with 
guns brought up from the coast by native trad- 
ers. When off the country of Bangala no less 
than sixty canoes, filled with men armed with 
firearms, attacked Stanley's party ; and with the 
overpowering odds of over 300 guns to 44 — now 
the full strength of the expedition. Fortunately 
for Stanley, both his weapons and ammunition 
were of a better stamp. For nearly five hours 
the conflict waged, and then the victory rested, 
as it had so many times before, with the Ever- 
Victorious Expedition. 

On the 9th of March, when encamped on the 



124 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

left bank for breakfast, a sudden attack made by 
natives, armed with guns, ended in another vic- 
tory for Stanley, although it left him with four- 
teen men wounded. This was the thirty-second 
fight forced on him by the savages he had en- 
countered since leaving Nyangwe, and it proved 
to be the last. Three days later the wearied 
voyagers entered a wide basin, surrounded by 
lofty cliffs, white and gleaming, on the flat top 
of which grew green and succulent grass. Hav- 
ing an area of more than thirty square miles, the 
basin seemed to the eyes which had grown ac- 
customed to the river — wide though it was, 
nearly five miles in places — just like a vast pool 
— and at Frank Pocock's suggestion it was named 
Stanley Pool, and the lofty white cliffs, Dover 
Cliffs. Passing out of the Pool, the roar of a 
great cataract burst upon their ears. This was 
the first of a long series of falls and rapids which 
were to continue until they reached Boma — a 
distance of 155 miles — in the course of which 
there were no less than thirty-two falls, and an 
average declination of the river of about seven 
feet per mile. Stanley gave to this enormous 
stretch of cataracts and rapids the name of 
" Livingstone Falls. " The difficulties presented 
by man had, to a great extent, passed away, 



ACROSS THE DARK CONTINENT. 125 

only to reveal obstacles offered by nature — ob- 
stacles, indeed, which were to deal a severer blow 
to Stanley and the expedition than had all the 
cunning and violence of those savages who re- 
garded their fellow-creatures as so much prey. 

On the 28th of March, 1877, at the Fifth Fall, 
by an unfortunate accident, whilst cautiously 
creeping down the rapids, a large canoe got 
adrift into mid-stream, and in a few seconds was 
hurled over the fall, whirled round several times, 
and then sucked in by the maelstrom which 
raged below. In this canoe were four men and 
Stanley's favorite page, Kalulu. It will be re- 
membered that Kalulu had been given to Stan- 
ley when at Unyanyembe on his search for 
Livingstone. He had since been to Europe and 
America with his master, and had accompanied 
him wherever he went. Stanley naturally felt 
the loss keenly — the more so as it might have 
been easily averted. For Kalulu had been closer 
to him than any of his native servants. Through 
many an attack of fever he had been nursed by 
his page with the tenderness and care of a woman. 
At the end of a weary day's march, it was from 
Kalulu's hands that he received the grateful cup 
of coffee or chocolate ; it was Kalulu who roused 
him in the ^arly morning and gave him his 



126 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

chotahazri, or first breakfast, of bananas and 
coffee. Kalulu himself had been an object of 
interest and care on the part of Stanley. Born 
a prince, and subsequently captured by Arab 
marauders and sold into bondage, the witness of 
deeds of untold cruelty to the wretched natives, 
Kalulu was a personification of the vicissitudes 
and misery caused by the slave-trade. At one 
time Stanley had cherished the idea of marching 
into the country over which Ka Lulu's father had 
reigned as king, and giving his page his own 
again ; but the stern sense of duty had led the 
explorer to do that which lay nearest to him, the 
arduous labors of which left him neither time nor 
inclination to prosecute a desire highly creditable 
to his feelings. The lad who had been born a 
prince, sold into slavery, and given as a page to 
the white man who had cared for him as he 
might for his own child — after traveling in 
Europe and America, and studying at school in 
England — went to his death over the wild falls 
of the Livingstone, and found his last resting-place 
in some silent pool below the remorseless rapids. 
Progress was very slow, for none of the cata- 
racts and few of the rapids could be navigated. 
The canoes and all the stores had to be dragged 
over-land from point to point — now over rocks 



ACROSS THE DARK CONTINENT. 



127 



now through jungle, and now again over table- 
land. On arriving at the Massassa Falls, Stan- 




KALULU AND STANLEY. 



ley pitched his camp on the cliff commanding 
the river, leaving the canoes to work their way 



128 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

down stream, from rock to rock, as far as they 
could. Prank Pocock, who was to follow him to 
the camp, by some strange fatal perversity, in- 
sisted on going with the canoes to the falls, and 
then, as if urged to his fate by an irresistible 
impulse, declared his intention to shoot them. 
Too late he realized the full danger. The canoe 
was caught by the rushing tide, flung over the 
falls, tossed from wave to wave, and then dragged 
down into the swirling depths of 'the whirlpools 
below. The crew struggled to the surface ; the 
insensible form of Pocock was shot up by the eddy 
ouly to be sucked in again and never more seen ! 
The men were rescued, but the "little master," 
as he was called, had gone from them forever. 

To Stanley the blow was crushing. He 
mourned for him as for a brother. " Thirty-four 
months," he wrote, " had we lived together, and 
hearty throughout had been his assistance, and 
true had been his service. The servant had long 
ago merged into the companion ; the companion 
had soon become a friend. . . . As I looked at the 
empty tent, a choking sensation of unutterable 
grief filled me. The sorrow-laden mind fondly 
recalled the lost man's inestimable qualities, his 
extraordinary gentleness, his patient temper, his 
industry, cheerfulness, and his tender friendship ; 



ACROSS THE DARK CONTINENT. 129 

it dwelt upon the pleasure of his society, his gen- 
eral usefulness, his piety, and the cheerful trust 
in our success with which he had renewed our 
hope and courage ; and each new virtue that it 
remembered only served to intensify my sorrow 
for his loss, and to suffuse my heart with pity 
and respect that, after the exhibition of so many 
admirable qualities, and such long faithful serv- 
ice, he should depart this life so abruptly, and 
without reward." To such a tribute to Frank 
Pocock's worth, nothing need be added. 

At the Isangila Cataract — where the already 
explored " Congo " began — Stanley left the river, 
which had been so fraught with adventure, pri- 
vation, and sorrow and started on a direct line 
across country to Boma — the nearest European 
settlement, and about 60 miles distant. The 
long line straggled on, weary and footsore, faint 
from insufficient food — for a few bananas and 
ground nuts were all they could procure — and 
silent from suffering. When half the distance 
had been traversed, and no food was forthcoming, 
Stanley wrote a letter of earnest appeal to any 
Europeans who might be at Boma, and sent this 
letter by his ever faithful and willing coxswain, 
Uledi. A most generous and timely response 

was made by two gentlemen who represented an 
10 



130 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

English firm there, and just as the poor wretched 
Zanzibaris were lying down by the roadside, 
gaunt with starvation and resigned to fate, the 
welcome appearance of Uledi at the head of a 
caravan of goodly supplies brought new life back 
to the weary souls, and supplied the sinews for 
the continuance of the journey. 

On August 9th, 1877, the more than decimated 
expedition marched into Bom a, 999 days after 
leaving Zanzibar, having traveled over 7000 
miles in that time. The reception accorded to 
Stanley partook of the nature of a triumph, and 
the first few days at Boma were given up to that 
delicious rest and oblivion of danger from which 
he had so long been an exile. From Boma the 
expedition was taken in a steamer to French Point 
and Kabinda — thence to San Paul de Loanda in a 
Portuguese gunboat. After being feted by the 
Portuguese authorities, Stanley embarked again 
with his people on an English man-of-war for Cape 
Town, where his followers were enabled to see the 
wonderful works of the white men — chief among 
which was the " fire carriage" — the locomotive. 

Once more the voyagers took ship, and this 
time their destination was Zanzibar, where all 
arrived in the highest of spirits and greatly im- 
proved health on the 26th of November. We 



ACROSS THE DARK CONTINENT. 131 

have no space to detail the joy and emotion, or 
the surprise and admiration with which the 
prowess of Stanley and the deeds of the Anglo- 
American Expedition were regarded. The feel- 
ings of ^11 may be very much more easily imag- 
ined than described. The "good master" had 
not only performed what he had set out to do, 
had not only crossed those distant lakes even to 
the great Salt Sea beyond, but had brought back 
his faithful Wangwana to their own homes, there 
to reward them with his own hand, and see them 
with his own eyes at rest at last. 

The price paid for this success was great. His 
white companions had all died, and with them in 
their deaths were no fewer than 170 natives. 
The financial cost was enormous. But the aim 
and end of the Anglo-American Expedition had 
been achieved, the great geographical problems 
of the Dark Continent solved, and Stanley had 
performed the task allotted to him, with a suc- 
cess so brilliant as to make him the cynosure of 
the admiring eyes of two hemispheres. 



132 HENRY M. STANLEY. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

STANLEY A STATE BUILDER. 

Stanley returned to Europe, but not, as he had 
anticipated, to his well-earned rest. On arriving 
at Marseilles, in his journey across Europe, he 
was met by representatives of Leopold II., King 
of the Belgians, who informed him that their 
Sovereign contemplated some great undertaking 
in Africa, and that he looked to Stanley for 
assistance in prosecuting it with success. 

This was in January, 1878, but it was not till 
the end of the year that the project took final 
shape and Stanley prepared to revisit Africa. In 
the meanwhile he was occupied by lecturing to 
great audiences, by a voluminous correspondence, 
and a careful study of the details of the proposed 
expedition. In June he published the account of 
his journey across Africa, under the title of 
" Across the Dark Continent/*' The book had an 
immense sale, and gave an impetus to African 
projects which resulted in numerous undertak- 
ings. On the river Congo, lakes Victoria and 



STANLEY A STATE BUILDER. 133 

Tanganika, in West, East, and Central Africa, 
missions were established by several denomina- 
tions ; French, Portuguese, and German travelers 
set out to explore vast regions of the Continent ; 
and there began a series of annexations by the 
European powers which have continued up to the 
present time. 

In November, 1878, at the palace of the Belgian 
King, an Association was formed for the purpose 
of utilizing the vast basin of the Congo for the 
benefit of the vaster world, and developing its 
natural wealth simultaneously with civilizing its 
people. Eepresentatives of most of the European 
States were among the prominent members of this 
novel company, and it finally received the title of 
"The International Association of the Congo." 
To Stanley was offered the all-important post of 
chief of the expedition which was to initiate the 
work — an offer which recruited health and his 
characteristic enterprise led him to accept with 
hearty promptness. 

The exact nature of the work before him may 
be considered under three heads — philanthropic, 
scientific, and commercial. Philanthropy was to 
be represented by urgent attempts to bring the 
savage tribes infesting the upper reaches of the 
Congo to something like a reasonable toleration 



134 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

of the white man and the stranger. They were 
to be shown the benefits of peace and trade, and 
the advantages accruing to them by intercourse 
with the civilized world. Above all, they were 
to be secured from the horrors of the slave trade. 
Science was to be served by the contemplated 
surveys of the basin of the river which would re- 
veal the physical geography and natural facilities 
and productions of the region. And, lastly, the 
work of the Association was to advance commerce, 
to provide an outlet for the great wealth of the 
interior : an opening for the manufactures of 
Europe. By the medium of roads, rivers, and 
bridges, by the founding of settlements and the 
cultivation of land, by the pacification of hostile 
tribes and the establishment of a secure main 
route, by means of the exchange of goods and 
other commercial methods, the Association was 
to achieve the gradual civilization of the Congo 
tribes, and the permanent founding of a vast 
field for the energies of the whole commercial 
world. The great share which Stanley had in 
furtherance of so wide an aim — so almost Quixotic 
a conception — this and the following chapters 
will show. 

In the spring of 1879, Stanley sailed for Africa 
in a specially chartered steamer. Proceeding 



STANLEY A STATE BUILDER. 135 

first to Zanzibar, he engaged about seventy 
Wangwana, the majority of whom had crossed 
Africa with him. In May, he sailed for the 
Congo, via the Eed Sea and the Mediterranean, 
and arrived off Banana Point — the settlement at 
the mouth— on the 14th of August, having been 
much delayed, by awaiting further orders, at 
several ports en route. At this place Stanley met 
his assistant officers, eleven in number. Two 
were English, five Belgians, one Frenchman, one 
American, and two Danes. 

The " baggage " of the expedition was, of course, 
as bulky as it was heterogeneous. It comprised — 
among other things — four screw steamers and 
launches, one paddle steamer, and several large 
steel lighters, etc. The cost of these alone was 
about £5,000. Then there were wooden houses of 
a portable character ; iron store-sheds, wagons, 
implements, arms and ammunition, tools, tons of 
canned provisions, and thousands of odds and 
ends, all more or less useful and indispensable. 

As far as Ponta da Lenha or Wood-Point, a 
distance of 34 miles from Banana Point— the 
Congo is navigable by the largest sea-going 
steamers. Above this, however, the river rapidly 
shallows, and fluctuates in depth according to 
the season of the year, 



136 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

The next point of interest on the Congo is 
Boma, where it will be remembered Stanley met 
with so hospitable a welcome in 1877. Boma, 
like Banana Point, is a great factory settlement. 
It is composed of large warehouses and store- 
sheds, belonging to trading companies of English, 
Dutch, French and Portuguese nationalities. 
These companies also own several large and small 
steamers, the latter used for carrying on business 
on the river, and the former for plying between 
Europe and the coast. In the reaches of the 
Lower Congo these steamers are a frequent fea- 
ture in the otherwise monotonous scene, and at 
the time of Stanley's arrival on the West Coast, 
that part of the Lower Congo which lies between 
Baoana Point and Boma, presented the busy 
appearance of a mercantile river. 

The landscape in which Boma forms the attrac- 
tive spot is wide and vast. Northward there 
ridges up against the heated sky a long uneven 
mass of hills, blue and cool in the hazy distance. 
Southward these hills are repeated, but in minia- 
ture. Filling the whole of the foreground and 
the middle distance — sweeping toward you on 
your left, and away from you on your right — the 
mighty Congo moves with silent, certain pace to- 
ward the sea. When the rains have fallen, the 



STANLEY A STATE BUILDER. 137 

country is carpeted with a vivid green, but a few 
months later, the vertical rays of a tropical sun 
have scorched every leaf and blade to tinder. 
Then follow the bush fires, bequeathing their 
legacy of embers, where succulent grass, gorgeous 
flowers, and thick undergrowth of bush once 
flourished. This bequest of charred trunks and 
blackened branches deprives the environment of 
Boma of what beauty it might have had, and 
imparts a dismal monotony to the landscape. 

But the white man has introduced features 
which do not change conditions which are per- 
manent. Machine shops, iron sheds, coal yards 
— a whole village of European houses — a whole 
town of huts belonging to the native employes — 
a large and well-designed hospital, on an ele- 
vated and airy site — and lastly, a staunch iron 
pier, thrusting its girders and spans far out into 
the river ; these are the new features which the 
seasons do not alter, and which one may safely 
predict are permanent. What traders accom- 
plished for their own ends on the lower reaches 
of the Congo, Stanley was to achieve in the 
broader and more enlightened spirit of the Asso- 
ciation on the upper waters of that vast river. 

About 40 miles from Boma, the Congo sud- 
denly, and temporarily, assumes the character of 



138 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

a Colorado river, and rushes downward through 
a canon of lofty and bare rock in a succession of 
falls and rapids. The foot of this canon is natu- 
rally the limit of navigation from the sea. At 
this point, goods destined for the upper river have 
to be transported across country. Here, there- 
fore, Stanley determined to found his chief settle- 
ment, and create his base for further exploration. 
Having purchased the exclusive right of the 
district from the native chiefs, he proceeded to 
make his mark upon the country. 

At the foot of the rapids, on the right bank of 
the river, rises the mountain of Vivi, and on an 
uneven plateau of that mountain — about 350 feet 
above the river — Stanley formed his first settle- 
ment. 

The plateau was leveled, the gigantic rocks that 
sprouted up here and there were smashed into 
pieces and used for foundations, a road was made 
from the narrow beach to the chosen spot, several 
houses were built both for Europeans and natives, 
and, finally, a large garden was formed by carry- 
ing rich soil from the valley and laying it in pre- 
viously excavated ground. In a short time this 
garden came to be a boon to the white men 
residing at the station, affording the only spot on 
the bare and sterile hills where shade from the 



STANLEY A STATE BUILDER. 139 

glaring sunshine could be found. In pulverizing 
the scattered rocks, Stanley, to whom idleness of 
any kind was an abhorrence, showed such skill 
with the sledge-hammer that the native chiefs 
gave him the name of " Bula Matari " — the 
Stone-breaker — by which title he soon became 
known to all the tribes dwelling upon the Congo. 
In three months the settlement at Vivi was 
finished, and " Onward " became the policy of the 
expedition. Leaving an American — named Spar- 
hawk — in charge of Vivi, Stanley marched to 
Isangila for the purpose of determining the 
direction of the road that was to be made. It 
will be remembered that from Vivi to Isangila 
the river is incapable of navigation, owing to 
the numerous cataracts and rapids which are 
known as the Livingstone Falls. Isangila is fifty- 
two miles distant from Vivi, and the intervening 
country is extremely rocky and rugged. The 
native tracks led, as usual, up and down the 
hills and valleys — straight as Roman roads — but 
it was not possible for a wagon road to be made 
over such country. Stanley finally decided on a 
route which in many places was fairly level, while 
in others it became steep and rocky, requiring 
much work before it could serve the purpose in- 
tended. This road-making from Vivi to Isangila 



140 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

was one of the most arduous duties of the ex- 
pedition, involving a great deal of planning as 
well as much labor. Once at Isangila, the boats 
could be launched upon the river and, with the 
exception of the Upper Livingstone Falls, the 
wide reaches of the Congo would, from there to 
the foot of the Stanley Falls, form a natural high- 
way, requiring nothing but navigation. 

With a force of 106 men, Stanley started on 
his " road-making" ; and if we may judge from 
his own journals, the number was miserably 
small for such work. The first few miles ran 
through grass from ten to fifteen feet in height, 
and of the thickness of bamboo. In one day 
about half-a-mile was made through such 
country. This indeed was splendid work, but 
they had something different from grass awaiting 
them. Moving slowly onward, at night camp- 
ing by the road at the spot where they left off 
work, slowly but surely they approached the 
rocky hills that lay between them and Isangila. 
With enormous labor a vast mountain mass was 
circumvented, and a roadway created by blasting 
along the face of the cliffs, and but a few feet 
above the surging rapids. Gullies had to be 
bridged, small ravines filled up, two large forests 
cut through, and a thousand and one difficulties 



STANLEY A STATE BUILDER. 141 

overcome. As each length of road was completed, 
Stanley returned to Vivi and brought up several 
tons of baggage. These visits to Vivi were 
usually far from brief holidays, for the trouble 
with the European assistants was never-ending 
— some being ill and unable to work, others being 
mutinous and refusing to work ; many left for 
Europe, and their places were filled by new arriv- 
als, with whom the whole process of acclimatiza- 
tion and initiation into their work had to be 
repeated. Stanley himself was not free from 
illness, and the road-making was occasionally de- 
layed on account of it. At the end of a year the 
road was at last finished. The marching and 
counter-marching between Vivi and the ever 
lengthening road had led the " Stone-breaker " 
over about 2,300 miles! The year had been big 
with toil and fraught with trial. Six Europeans 
had died, and thirteen had retired invalided, and 
the natives had also succumbed in numbers to 
the oppressive heat of the Congo Canon. But 
the work had been done, and done well, and from 
Vivi to Isangila there was a fifteen feet road, 
along which the heaviest wagons, laden with 
steamers, launches and boats, could safely travel. 
By the 1st May, all the fifty tons of baggage 
had been transported to Manyanga — 140 miles 



142 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

above Vivi — and Stanley began treating with the 
natives for permission to found a settlement in 
their district. Within a few days, he was pros- 
trated with a severe attack of fever, from which 
he thought, at one time, he could not rally. But 
his constitution proved even stronger than his 
temperament, and after many days he was able to 
move about again. Just at this time came the 
news that a large number of Zanzibaris were on 
the road to Manyanga ; and this, coupled with 
the final settlement of the treaty question with 
the natives, helped him towards recovery by leaps 
and bounds. 

The expedition was now within measurable dis- 
tance of Stanley Pool, and up to this point the 
natives had been friendly and hospitable in the 
extreme. Even now no outward hostility was 
shown, but the native chiefs displayed the very 
greatest repugnance to the founding of any 
permanent station. They imagined it would de- 
prive them of their inter-tribal trade, and pre- 
vent the holding of their frequent markets. In 
one case, that of Ngalyema, king of Ntamo, over 
£200 was spent in inducing him to grant the 
white man a concession, and a few weeks after- 
wards he became actively hostile. But there was 
a greater personage than Ngalyema, and this 



STANLEY A STATE BUILDER. 143 

was Makoko, the great chief of the Wambundu, 
who to a six-foot beard added all the dignity 
expected of a lord of many acres. Makoko proved 
staunch and friendly, aud ultimately Ngalyema, 
whose town was Kintamo, welcomed Stanley to 
his district. This was exactly what the latter 
desired, for the neighborhood of Kintamo was 
the most suitable locality for the proposed station. 
On the southern bank, just above the cataracts 
which mark the rapid drop from Stanley Pool to 
the river, the settlement of Leopoldville was 
founded. It stands in an excellent position be- 
tween the Lower and Upper Congo, on the south- 
western corner of Stanley Pool, which connects 
the rivers. On lofty ground, overlooking Kin- 
tamo Bay and sloping towards the river, Stanley 
cleared his site, and began building. Out of the 
hillside he cut a long and wide terrace, and 
upon this the various buildings were erected. 
The largest house, headquarters, was stoutly 
made of wood, and then plastered with clay to 
the depth of two feet. This would form, in the 
event of subsequent hostilities, an excellent fort 
into which the garrison could retreat. The 
native village was built a little distance away, 
and as it had even then to accommodate over 150 
natives, its proportions were considerable. Head- 



144 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

quarters contained five bedrooms, a commodious 
dining-room, and a strong magazine. A garden 
was laid out, sheds and houses were erected for 
live stock of various descriptions ; and, in short, 
all that an important station could require was, 
after much labor, supplied. 

During all this time the camp was much dis- 
turbed by the frequent petty acts of hostility 
committed by Ngalyema, and at last it became 
evident that, if peace was to be preserved, 
the white man and the black must make what 
was called "blood brotherhood." Stanley tells 
how this curious operation — which, by the bye, 
he had frequently undergone — was performed. 

"We crossed arms, an incision was made in 
each arm, some salt was placed on the wound, 
and then a mutual rubbing took place, while the 
great fetish man of Kintamo pronounced an in- 
conceivable number of curses on my head if ever 
I proved false. Susi (formerly Livingstone's 
headman), not to be outdone by him, solicited the 
gods to visit unheard of atrocious vengeances 
on Ngalyema if he dared to make the slightest 
breach in the sacred brotherhood, which made 
him and Bula Matari (the stone-breaker) one and 
indivisible forever." 

Stanley sums up his work at Leopold ville thus : 



STANLEY A STATE BUILDER. 145 

" Leopoldville, with its one-story blockhouse, 
commanding from its windows all approaches, 
impregnable to musket-armed natives, and proof 
against fire, despite its grass roof, because, un- 
derneath that grass roof, there was an earth 
roof two feet thick, on which the fire might burn 
itself out harmlessly, offered a safe refuge should 
trouble arise. The terrace was long and wide — 
the native village was formed of one broad street 
— flanked by a row of clay huts on either side. 
Slanting from a point thirty feet below the block- 
house, and sloping gently down to the landing 
place, gardens of young bananas and vegetables 
extended beyond these huts. Water was handy ; 
fuel was abund ant. The agricultural Wambunda 
were our landlords as well as our good friends. 
In a basin right in front of his residence, which 
time and industry might render pretty, the work 
of the station-chief lay before him." From 
Leopold Hill, above the station, a magnificent 
view is to be had. The vast circle of water 
formed by Stanley Pool, the amphitheater of 
rocky mountains and lofty white cliffs, the 
large island of Bamu, with many attendant 
satellites, combine to make a scene of a striking 
character. Back, away behind the lofty banks 

of the Congo, there stretches a country as rich as 
10 



146 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

it is neglected, whose enormous natural wealth 
it will almost require another generation of toil 
to rightly gauge. 

The station at Leopoldville was finished in 
April, 1882. Stanley thereupon set out and 
surveyed the Pool, making hundreds of valuable 
observations and notes. In the following month 
he embarked in the En Avant, a paddle boat over 
forty feet in length, with a draught of only 
eleven inches ; and, after passing through many 
miles of fertile country, enduring much opposi- 
tion on the part of the natives, including the 
mosquitoes of the locality, he entered a large 
lake which he thereupon circumnavigated and 
named Lake Leopold. This was all he was to do 
for some time, for fever suddenly attacked him 
and prostrated him to such an extent that he was 
brought back to Leopoldville in a delirious condi- 
tion. When slightly recovered, he journeyed in 
easy stages down the river, and thence to San 
Paul de Loanda, where he embarked for a visit 
to Europe, after an absence of three years. 

What had been accomplished in that time ? 
Much. Stanley's original instructions were to 
found three stations, launch a steamer on the 
Upper Congo, and keep touch between his sta- 
tions and the sea. Five stations had been erected, 



STANLEY A STATE BUILDER. I47 

a sailing boat as well as a steamer plied on the 
Upper Congo, and a launch continually kept up 
communication between the stations. Besides 
this, a wagon road had been constructed between 
Stanley Pool and Manyanga, and from Isangila 
down to Vivi. Generally speaking, the native 
tribes had proved friendly, and, in some cases, 
willing to hire out their services. The influence 
of the International Association had been spread 
from Boma to Stanley Pool, and from thence to 
the confluence of the Kwa with the Congo — that 
is to say, a distance of over 400 miles. Thus far, 
then, had the thin end of the wedge penetrated ; 
much had been done, but more, far more, re- 
mained to be done. The first " phase" of the 
work had been completed, and there was now the 
slower, more diplomatic task of extending the 
area of influence by persuading the native chiefs 
to concede their power over the river regions to 
the Association. Those political rights, without 
which the great work begun might be thwarted 
if not ruined by the hostility of any envious cor- 
poration or greedy trader, were to be secured 
to the Association. Its officers were to have 
power of life and death, law and order, over the 
districts adjoining their stations, and under their 
immediate control. 



148 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

Stanley placed all this, and much more, before 
the Association on his return to Europe, and the 
Executive Committee announced that they were 
prepared to undergo all the expense that such an 
extension of efforts would cause, provided that 
Stanley would return to carry on the pioneering 
work on the Upper Congo, and generally direct 
the action of the entire undertaking. On his 
part, Stanley announced his willingness to accept 
the task, after he had made a few stipulations 
which he deemed necessary for the success of the 
work. 

In November, 1882, he sailed again for the 
Congo, there to resume the task committed to him 
by the " Association Internationale Africaine." 

Before closing this chapter, it may be well to 
give a brief resume of the general character of 
the Congo and its basin, thus making what 
follows more clearly understood. This river, 
which exceeds 3000 miles in length, has been 
divided for the sake of convenience into well- 
defined sections. The Lower Congo is that part 
of the river between Leopoldville, on Stanley 
Pool, and the sea, and is about 330 miles in length. 
Of this, the reach between the sea and Vivi, 110 
miles, is navigable. From Vivi to Isangila, a 
distance of 50 miles, the Lower Livingstone Falls 



STANLEY A STATE BUILDER. 149 

prevent navigation, but thence to Manyanga, 
about 90 miles, the river, broken in places, be- 
comes navigable. At Manyanga the Upper 
Livingstone Falls are met with, and, conse- 
quently, from these to Leopoldville a road had to 
be made. 

The Upper Congo begins at Stanley Pool, and 
for over a 1000 miles — that is to say to Stanley 
Falls — the river is navigable, and forms a grand 
highway for commerce right into the heart of 
Africa. Following the river up still higher from 
the foot of Stanley Falls, a length of nearly 400 
miles of more or less broken water, the traveler 
would arrive at Nyangwe. Thence to Lake 
Moero or Mweru is another 400 miles. Lake 
Bangweolo or Bemba is 220 miles distant from 
Moero, and nearly 400 miles from Bemba, the 
Congo, under the name of the Chambesi, takes 
its rise. From Stanley Falls to Lake Moero the 
river was called by Livingstone the Webb- 
Lualaba. 

The maritime region of the Congo basin is re- 
stricted and a few miles inland the ground slopes 
upward, until we are confronted by successive 
ridges of hills gradually rising to mountain 
height. Through this mountainous region the 
Congo runs as in a canon, and not until Stanley 



150 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

Pool is reached does the river spread out to its 
great breadth and most placid pace, amid fertile 
plains and prolific vegetation. 

The largest affluents from the south are the 
Kwa, into which flows the noble Kasai. This 
river, with which the name of Wissman, the 
German explorer, is closely identified, extends 
over an area of about seven degrees of latitude. 
Next comes the Euki, at whose mouth Equator- 
ville has since been built; and the Lulongo, 
which drains a densely populated country. The 
chief tributaries on the north bank are the Mo- 
bangi, the most important affluent of the Congo, 
which drains by its multitudinous head streams 
the region between the Congo and the Equatorial 
provinces of Egypt, and from which the names 
of Captain Van Gele and Dr. Schweinfurth are 
inseparable ; the Itimbiri, which flows into the 
Congo at its greatest breadth, and, lastly, the 
Aruwimi, about 150 miles below Stanley Falls. 

Stanley put the population of the Upper Congo 
basin down at 43,000,000. Captain Wissman, 
Dr. Pogge, and other great travelers through 
portions of this area unite in testifying to the 
destiny of population and the extent of the so- 
called "villages." Wissman has put on record 
his feelings of astonishment at the length of these 



STANLEY A STATE BUILDER. 151 

villages — oftentimes five and six miles of con- 
tinual street ! Tippu Tib told Stanley that he 
had been two hours passing through some of 
these villages. The great German traveler, Dr. 
Schweinfurth, has told us that, in one part of 
the country, an almost unbroken line of huts and 
tembes stretches along the caravan route. The 
people themselves, though often barbarous to the 
stranger, can readily be approached by means of 
trade. As keen as any European or American 
after business, these more than half-naked peo- 
ple will consume hours in attempting to get the 
upper hand of the trader who offers for sale the 
white man's handiwork. 

A few words as to the productions of the Up- 
per Congo basin will not be out of place here. 
Naturally, in an equatorial region, the vegeta- 
tion stands first. The oil palm, valuable for the 
oil it gives, and its kernels, which are used for 
oil-cake, is found everywhere — whole forests of 
it are commonly met. The india-rubber plant is 
another important factor to be reckoned with. 
Stanley believed that enough gum could be trans- 
ported in a year to pay for the much coveted rail- 
way ! Vegetable fibers of all kinds are numer- 
ous. 

Then ivory, of course, represents a large, 



152 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

though less satisfactory, source of income. Ac- 
cording to Stanley's estimate, £250,000 worth of 
ivory might be collected annually for twenty- 
five years, and then the elephant would be no 
more ; at least, in the basin of the Upper £ongo. 

Vegetables, fruits, and herbs of mali^kinds 
grow prolificly. Potatoes, onions, and cabbages 
have been imported from Europe, and thrive 
well. Naturally the banana and plantain flour- 
ish exceedingly. Bread is made of millet flour in 
many parts ; in others, the staple nourishment is 
cassava or manioc. 

Rice, wheat, and other grains have done well 
in suitable localities ; in short there seems little 
if any limit to the fertility of this glorious area 
of over a million square miles. 



STANLEY A STATE BUILDER. J.53 



CHAPTER IX. 
Stanley a state builder — continued. 

There is a good old proverb familiar to us all 
— "When the cat's away, the mice will play," 
and it is quite certain that, in their chief's ab- 
sence in Europe, more was left undone than was 
done by his co-operators on the Congo. Stanley 
has placed on record his great disgust at the gen- 
eral demoralization of the stations of the Congo. 
There were of course exceptions, and noble in- 
stances of adherence to the dictates of duty ; but 
the general progress proved to be practically nil. 

Stanley had returned to Africa with fourteen 
European officers and some 600 tons of material 
for service on the Congo, and at once set to work 
to utilize such wealth of men and means. He 
despatched a force to erect stations along the 
Kwilu and Niadi rivers, north of the Congo, and 
reaching the ocean independently. As this dis- 
trict afterwards passed into the possession of the 
French, the work of exploration need not be fol- 



154 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

lowed out here. But the keen foresight shown 
by Stanley, in thus attempting to secure an al- 
ternative route to the Upper Congo, is at once 
made evident by glancing at the map. 

While Stanley was at Vivi, a French trader, 
indirectly employed by the International Associa- 
tion, fired at a native interpreter and wounded 
him severely though not mortally. This das- 
tardly act caused great excitement, and as the 
white man was clearly in the wrong, Stanley 
asked the native chiefs to state the fine that 
would in their opinion condone the offense. They 
demanded arms and goods to the value of more 
than £400 ! After two hours of palavering, 
Stanley managed to reduce this rather high valu- 
ation to about £24. The Frenchman's revolver 
was also yielded up — to be smashed into atoms. 
This occurrence illustrates two facts ; the first, 
the wanton and often lawless behavior of the men 
Stanley had to command, and the second, that, 
in spite of the extreme cupidity of the native 
mind, it is amenable to reason and argument. 
Indeed all through Stanley's career in Africa one 
is struck by the degree of success his " palaver- 
ing " obtained. From the most obdurate chiefs 
he seldom failed to get an abatement of the 
hongo, or tribute, they started with demanding. 



STANLEY A STATE BUILDER. 155 

He has told us of cases where he has been sum- 
moned to yield up 50 doti of cloth, and yet man- 
aged to induce the petty tyrant to accept one 
doti. It is possible that more chaffering and bar- 
gaining goes on in Africa — from Zanzibar to 
Loanda, and Alexandria to Cape Town— than in 
any two of the other great continents. 

Proceeding up the river to Manyanga, Stanley 
despatched one of his officers to conclude treaties 
with all the tribes on the south bank of the river 
between Manyanga and Leopoldville. Stations 
were also to be erected. The temporary track be- 
tween Manyanga and Stanley Pool was taken in 
hand and converted into an excellent road. As 
Stanley slowly journeyed along the river, organiz- 
ing, strengthening, and encouraging the various 
stations and posts as he went, news came from 
Leopoldville that the garrison of that entrepot 
was starving. Despatching provisions with all 
speed, Stanley pushed forward over the old road 
he had made four seasons before, and which, 
through neglect, was beginning to show a promis- 
ing crop of young trees ; and on March the 21st, 
1883, once more arrived at this finely situated 
settlement. 

Matters were in a bad way at Leopoldville. 
Where Stanley had pictured gardens and culti- 



156 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

vated fields, there was nothing but grass. The 
native town was almost hidden by the rank 
growth which had been allowed to work out its 
own views of existence. The steel-made boats 
had lain at anchor for more than a year, and no 
attempt had been made to clean them. The rela- 
tions between the Europeans and the natives of 
the district were of the worst description, and so 
the list of failures ran on. In a word, Leopold- 
ville had been not merely stationary, but retro- 
gressive. Without loss of time Stanley set him- 
self to mend matters. The currency of this part 
of Africa is a brass rod, short and slender. Enor- 
mous numbers are required to make up a respect- 
able sum of money, which may be well illustrated 
by stating that, in the coffers of Leopoldville, 
there remained about 800 rods, which were only 
just enough to buy provisions for 3 days for the 
whole station. Stanley sent off a detachment to 
Vivi, to bring up a caravan loaded with brass 
rods with all possible speed. From a supply -col- 
lecting station he had established at Sabuka, en 
route, he obtained a quantity of provisions suffi- 
cient for all immediate purposes. Here again is 
observable that careful forethought which has 
characterized Stanley in all his expeditions. He 
had anticipated the possibility of such a dilemma, 



STANLEY A STATE BUILDER. 157 

and having provided for it, suffered in conse- 
quence but slight inconvenience. 

Having held a great "shauri" with all the 
neighboring chiefs, at which he managed to re- 
store the good-fellowship which had before existed, 
Stanley induced the chiefs to sign a treaty by 
which they and he, on the part of the Association, 
engaged to control the entire country south and 
west of Stanley Pool, in a civilized and enlightened 
manner. In this and all succeeding treaties, it 
must be remembered that the Association was 
always regarded as the chief power, and invested 
with the sovereign rights of peace, war, and com- 
merce. And further, as a visible sign of the 
new-born confederation, every chief received the 
Association's flag to fly above his grass-roofed 
hut on certain stated occasions. As soon as this 
treaty with the Wambunda was concluded, other 
chiefs came in and professed their willingness to 
confederate ; and up to the time of Stanley's de- 
parture for the Upper Congo, everything went 
" merry as a marriage bell." 

This departure took place on May the 9th, 1883. 
The little exploring fleet was composed of the En 
Avant steamer ; the Royal, launch ; and the A. 
I. A. (Association Internationale Africaine), 
steamer. A whale boat and canoe were towed 



158 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

by the two former. The force amounted in all 
to eighty men, the cargo to six tons. To quote 
Stanley himself : — 

" We have axes to hew the forests, hammers 
to break the rock, spades to turn up the sod 
and to drain the marsh, or shovels to raise the 
rampart ; scythes to mow the grass, hatchets to 
penetrate the jungle, and seeds of all kinds for 
sowing ; saws to rip planking, and hammers, 
nails, and cabinet-makers' tools to make furni- 
ture ; needles and thread for sewing all the cloth 
in these bales, twine to string their beads, and 
besides these useful articles in the cases, there 
are also countless ' notions' and fancy knick- 
knacks to appease the cupidity of the most power- 
ful chief, or excite the desire for adornment in 
the breast of woman." 

Among other items the following maybe noted 
as giving some idea of what the white man trades 
and journeys with on the Congo : — 47 bales of 
cloth, 600 lbs. of cowries, over 4000 lbs. of brass 
rods, a case of velvet caps and hats, 6 cases of 
fancy beads ; an enormous quantity of medicine, 
ammunition, and provisions ; 2 cases of garden 
seeds, and a host of other articles, useful alike to 
the expedition and the tribes it might encounter. 

Passing the important stations of Kinshassa 



STANLEY A STATE BUILDER. 159 

and Kimpoko on Stanley Pool, and Mswata on 
the Upper Congo, Stanley emerged above Chum- 
biri into the wide islet-studded reaches of the 
Congo. " We have been voyaging," he writes, 
" since leaving Boma and the estuary-like breadth 
of the Lower Congo, in a pass or defile. From 
Boma to Vivi, we steamed between two lines of 
mountain heights ; between Vivi and Isangila, 
we traveled in a narrow valley parallel with the 
chasmic trough of the Congo ; between Isangila 
and Manyanga, our boats ran up the crooked 
ravine-like valley of the river ; between Man- 
yanga and Leopoldville we marched along the 
edge of the deep fracture in the high land, 
through which the Congo continuously roars ; 
then after a slight relief, obtained by the lake- 
like expansion called Stanley Pool, we have been 
confined again between two mountain linos of 
more or less picturesqueness, up as far as the 
rocky point above Chumbiri, to finally emerge 
into the lacustrine breadth which the voluminous 
waters of the Congo have scooped out of the plains 
and lowlands which we now behold extended on 
either hand, with scarcely any extraordinary rise or 
hill, until we shall approach the Biyerre affluent. 
"The real heart of Equatorial Africa is this 
central fertile region, whose bountiful and un- 



160 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

paralleled richness of soil will repay the toil and 
labor required to bring it within the reach of 
Europe. It was not the uplands of the maritime 
region, with their millions of ravines and narrow 
oven- hot valleys, and bald grass tops, and limited 
bits of grassy plateaus, with here and there a 
grove of jungly forest scattered like islets amid 
the grassy wastes, that I strove for ; it was this 
million square miles of almost level area, which 
we may call the kernel, that was worth the 
trouble of piercing the 235 miles of thick rude 
mountain husk which separates it from the ener- 
gies of Europeans, who, could they but reach it, 
would soon teach the world what good might 
come out of Africa." 

At several places, notably at Usindi and Irebu, 
the advancing expedition had a most flattering 
reception, and the larders of the flotilla, which 
were rapidly emptying, were soon filled to over- 
flowing. The provisions usually obtained from 
the Congo tribes consisted of fowls, goats, cassava 
bread, beans, rice, curry, honey, milk, sweet pota- 
toes, bananas, yams, and palm-wine. Though 
not of great variety, these comestibles were gen- 
erally obtained in large quantities ; and, in fact, 
as the 80 odd members of the expedition con- 
sumed nearly 300 lbs. of food per diem, the stock 



fflffiirara mm sum 

m 







STANLEY A STATE BUILDER. 161 

of provisions needed large as well as frequent 
supplies. 

The power by which the steamers were driven 
provided an inexhaustible source of speculation 
for the natives. The less philosophical supposed 
that a number of men were concealed in the 
hold, but the more astute rightly put it down to 
the "big pot," as they called the boiler. But 
even these could not conjecture the thing that 
the engineer was always " cooking " ! " What- 
ever it is, " said they, "it takes a long time to 
cook. That engineer has been cooking all day 
and it is not finished yet." Finally they fell back 
upon that invariable dernier ressort of the Afri- 
can — "It is the white man's medicine ! " 

At the confluence of the Buruki or Mohundi 
(Black) River — since called the Ruki, and which 
is nearly a thousand yards in width at its junc- 
ture with the Congo, Stanley established a station, 
which was first called Equator Station, and after- 
wards Equatorville, on account of its being 
situated on the Equator. Leaving Lieutenant 
Van Gele in charge, Stanley returned to Leopold- 
ville to bring up reinforcements of men and 
material. On his way he induced the tribes of 
Irebu, who were waging an internecine war, to 

"bury the hatchet ; " he then steamed up the 
ii 



162 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

Lukanga Eiver, and discovered Lake Mantumba, 
which is surrounded by beautiful scenery, and 
has a circumference of about 150 miles ; and 
finally arrived at Leopoldville after an absence 
of two months. 

Shortly after this, owing to some misunder- 
standing, the desultory fighting which the natives 
call a " war " broke out in the neighborhood of 
Bolobo, and Stanley, who hastened to the scene, 
had his little fleet fired at for the first time in the 
four years he had spent upon the Congo ! The 
natives were aroused, and it required about ten 
days of continual "Shauris," and a harmless 
exhibition of the powers of a Krupp gun, to pro- 
cure peace. Stanley has been credited with the 
reputation of a " fighting man," and therefore it 
is only due to him to point out how, again and 
again, in his intercourse with the Congo tribes, 
he prevented bloodshed even among the natives 
themselves by the exercise of a well-timed diplo- 
macy. 

He scored his next success by inducing the 
warlike Bangalas, who had fought him furiously 
when descending the Congo in 1S77, to make 
" blood brotherhood." The country of these 
people is Iboko, and it is one of the largest and 
most powerful on the Upper Congo. Proceeding 



STANLEY A STATE BUILDER. 1G3 

ever up stream, Stanley passed through a perfect 
archipelago of islands. The forest trees reached 
the great height of 150 and 200 feet, and the bush 
was so dense as to be impenetrable without the 
aid of the ax. While passing along these green- 
walled straits, Stanley experienced one of those 
violent storms which are not unusual in any 
tropical country. With a sudden rustling roar, 
as if all the miles and miles of forest had been 
buffeted by a stupendous whirlwind, such a storm 
begins. The river, which the moment before 
has been like oil, is now scarred with waves in- 
creasing in height and velocity every minute. 
The huge trees, with all their attendant parasites 
and creepers, sway to and fro, shrieking and 
moaning as if in mortal pain. The leaves are 
swept in clouds before the rushing wind, and 
then— then comes the rain. No European 
shower, but genuine tropical rain, drenching to 
the skin in a moment, and hailing down pellets 
of water as large as marbles. If the ground 
were parched and the grass but tinder an hour 
ago, now it is covered with running water and 
the vegetation has revived. Where there was a 
runnel or a brook, now there is a river. From 
the four quarters the clouds have gathered and 
shattered right overhead, letting fall a sea of 



164: HENRY M. STANLEY. 

water which precipitation converts into rain — 
tropical rain. Before the fury of the tempest 
man and beast must seek shelter, whether on the 
open savannah or under the boughs of the groan- 
ing trees. But in an hour the clouds have passed 
over and the hailing of the rain is ceased. Faint 
gusts of wind, ever growing fainter, or the pat- 
ter of the drops as they fall from leaf to leaf, the 
rushing streams and broken boughs, are all that 
marks the track of the storm. The sky is blue as 
ever, the sun as fierce ; the thermometer is high 
up in the sultry regions, and the last, loose fringe 
of the storm-cloud has dropped below the hori- 
zon. Suddenly arising, as suddenly gone — such 
is a tropical tornado. 

As the little fleet of steamers puffed its way 
higher and higher up the mighty river, richer and 
richer grew the land. The soil was black with 
vegetable matter, and its fertility was extreme. 
Miles and miles of forest trees of great value 
lined the banks on either hand ; gum copal trees 
covered with the parasitic orchilla — containing 
the germs of large fortunes — were seen for hours 
together. The many islands in mid-stream con- 
tinually assumed new shapes, but their exuber- 
ance of vegetation was an enduring feature. The 
land was a land of plenty. 



STANLEY A STATE BUILDER. 165 

Passing slowly up river, exploring all im- 
portant tributaries for a considerable distance, 
undergoing the ceremony of " blood brother- 
hood " countless times, making treaties with the 
great chiefs, this mission of commerce and civili- 
zation at length arrived at the foot of the seventh 
and last cataract of Stanley Falls. This was the 
destination of the expedition— the Ultima Tkule 
of Stanley's " state building" on the Congo. 
The people who inhabited the islands and the main- 
land west of the Falls are the Wenyas, who are 
great fishermen and dexterous boatmen. With 
these Stanley opened a "shauri" for the purchase 
of land on which to found a permanent settle- 
ment. After a great deal of agitation on the 
part of the natives, to whom the idea was entirely 
novel, and prolific outbursts of native oratory in 
many phases— fearful, cautious, prophetic, indig- 
nant, abusive, shrewd, philosophic, pacific, and 
finally friendly— Stanley bought for £160 worth 
of beads, knives, cloth, wire, looking-glasses, 
caps, brass rods, and other forms of an extensive 
currency, a considerable portion of a large island 
for founding his settlement. The station was 
situated just below the rapids, and possessed in 
a creek on the east side of the island an excellent 
harbor. The powerful tribe of the Bakuma dwell 



IQQ HENRY M. STANLEY. 

in the country east of the seventh Fall, and of 
them Stanley made most cordial friends. With 
both the Wenyas and the Bakumas he concluded 
treaties, insuring his people safe and permanent 
dwelling among them, and stipulating for a civ- 
ilized method of conducting commerce, and the 
sovereignity or the powers of Umpire in all mat- 
ters of doubt or difficulty. 

He then set his men to build a strong house, 
which was plentifully stored with provisions, 
tools, ammunition, cloth, beads, cowries, etc. ; 
and gave the charge of the station to a Scotch- 
man, named Binnie, — a man of small physique, 
but with a lion's heart — entrusting thirty-one 
armed men to his command. On the 10th of 
December, 1883, Stanley turned his back upon 
the Falls, and began to descend the river. The 
little Scotchman was alone in the heart of 
Africa ! It should be added here that he be- 
haved splendidly, and in a very short time won 
the affection, as well as the respect of the neigh- 
boring tribes. 

Stanley's work was almost done. From point 
to point, along the river, he had placed stations, 
and obtained treaties which gave the Association 
sovereign rights. When the success of these 
stations had encouraged the natives, little difiS.- 



STANLEY A STATE BUILDER. 167 

culty would be experienced in filling up the gaps. 
The pioneering was accomplished, the seeds of 
federation sown ; and time, and time only, could 
combine the scattered links, and weld them into 
an unbroken chain. All the Congo tribes knew 
and honored "BulaMatari ;" and nearly all had 
covenanted with him to keep the peace and advance 
his aims. The whole region had been touched by 
a master's hand, and quickened into vitality. 
The tribes of the Congo were ready for the final 
step — the confederation of their units into an 
undivided whole, ready for agglomeration into 
one great state. 

Stanley returned to Vivi in April, 1S84. He 
then learnt that Gordon Pasha was coming to 
the Congo to help on the work. The next news 
reversed this arrangement — Gordon was on his 
way to Khartoum, under orders from the British 
Government. Then Sir Francis de Winton ar- 
rived, and to his efficient care Stanley gladly 
handed over the direction of affairs. Vivi had 
never thriven, and in fact its last days were less 
promising than its first. Sir Francis de Winton 
began his work on the Congo by moving the station 
to a more suitable site, and erecting larger and 
better equipped buildings. Vivi— New Vivi — 
was in a fair way to prosperity ; a splendid sana- 



168 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

torium had been built on the summit of a hill at 
Boma, under the direction of Dr. Allard, and the 
well-being of the invalided was for the future 
assured. The affairs of the Upper Congo were 
left to the able guidance of Captain Hanssens, 
and Captain Saulez was appointed chief of 
Leopoldville. With these able men in command, 
Stanley left his work on the Congo behind, and 
turned his face once more toward Europe. On 
August 3d, 1884, he arrived at Ostend, and pre- 
sented his report to the King of the Belgians. 



THE FOUNDING OF THE FREE STATE. 169 



CHAPTER X 

THE FOUNDING OF THE FREE STATE. 

The coping stone to the fabric was wanting ; 
the great achievements of the International 
Association's Expedition required European coun- 
tenance for the final investment of their political 
rights. The Expedition had finished its work, 
and a settled polity was now required. The 
European States were about to sit in conclave, 
and out of the material created by Stanley to 
carve a new State in Equatorial Africa. 

Of all the varied material gathered for State- 
building, first and foremost were the treaties 
made by Stanley with more than 450 independent 
chiefs. These men had sold, in return for large 
sums of money, part of the lands they had owned 
from time immemorial. With the land they had 
transferred their powers as chiefs — they had, in 
fact, invested the new owners with the rights and 
privileges of a sovereign. 

The conditions of these treaties were all, more 
or less, alike, and may be briefly described as, on 



170 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

the part of the chiefs, giving up their sovereign 
rights over the country ; promising to join their 
forces to those of the Association ; to resist in- 
trusion or attacks from foreigners of any nation- 
ality and color ; and yielding to the Association 
all game, mining, fishing, and forest rights, to- 
gether with absolute control of all roads and 
waterways running through the country. The 
Association, on its part, paid a large sum of 
money down, together with monthly subsidies. 
It promised to take no land or property except 
with the consent of the owners. It undertook to 
promote, as far as lay in its power, the prosperity 
of the country, upholding justice and punishing 
the transgressor. And it agreed to lend its aid 
and countenance to all just government and 
authority exercised by the chiefs over their own 
subjects. In addition to these direct treaties 
between the natives and the Association, the 
chiefs themselves had been confederated, and in 
unison they had agreed to accept the Association 
as supreme, requiring no tribute nor imposts 
from any one connected with, or protected by, the 
Association ; and they had further covenanted to 
hoist the flag of the Association — blue, with a 
golden star — above their respective villages, as a 
sign of its supreme power. 



THE FOUNDING OF THE FREE STATE. 17J 

With such thorough preliminary work as this, 
it was not difficult to bring matters to a success- 
ful conclusion. 

The idea of holding an European Conference 
on the subject of the Congo and its Free Stations 
originated with Prince Bismarck's proposal to 
the French Ambassador at Berlin. On November 
15th, 1884, this Conference held its first sitting 
at Berlin. Its International character may be 
gathered from the fact that among the nations 
represented were Great Britain, the United 
States, Germany, Belgium, Austria, France, 
Portugal, Italy, Holland, and Russia. 

The chief objects of the Conference may be 
divided under three heads : — The free naviga- 
tion of the Congo. With this was coupled free 
trade. All nations and people were to be able 
to engage in commerce without being liable to 
any duties or imposts. Certain taxes, however, 
which would be required for the support of the 
actual government, might be levied. The next 
question to be settled was the free navigation of 
the Niger. And the third was to define the pro- 
cedure for all valid annexation of land or prop- 
erty, in bulk and by nations, in Africa. This, 
of course, referred to the future. 

On the 18th of December the proposals as to the 



172 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

free navigation of the Congo and Niger were 
finally approved. Italy was anxious that the 
liquor traffic which, unfortunately, is very con- 
siderable, should be prohibited. She was unsuc- 
cessful in her good intentions, but the Confer- 
ence adopted certain precautions in the case of 
the " abuse" of the liquor traffic. 

On the 7th of January, 1885, the Conference 
agreed to the slavery clauses ; that is to say, all 
powers holding territory on or near the Congo 
basin were to prevent the sale of the natives, 
forbid the waters of the Congo or its tributaries, 
or the land adjacent, to the slaver ; and to do all 
in their power to put an end to the trade and 
punish those engaged in it. 

By the 5th of February the difficulty between 
France and the International Association was 
removed. The southern limit of French terri- 
tory was denned as being from the Chiloango 
Eiver to near Manyanga ; then along the north- 
ern banks of the Congo as far as the confluence 
of the Mobangi with the Congo — about 17° E. 
longitude. The flag of the Association was to 
be considered that of a friendly state. At that 
time the course of the Mobangi was not known, 
and its subsequent discovery has given rise to 
some tension between France and the Congo Free 



THE FOUNDING OF THE FREE STATE. 173 

State, which, happily, is in a fair way of being 
removed. 

Ten days later, the other great question, that 
of the frontier-line between the territories of the 
Association and Portugal, was amicably settled. 
The latter was to own the south bank of the 
Lower Congo nearly as far as Vivi, and then, 
roughly, was limited by the parallel of G° S. 
latitude to the Eiver Kuango or Coango. Portu- 
gal, also, received a portion of the coast between 
French territory and the mouth of the Congo, 
wedged into the region claimed by the Associa- 
tion. 

Thus, the International Association was 
granted, by an European Conference, a well- 
defined status and limit. It gained a coast-line 
about twenty-two miles in length — amply suf- 
ficient for all trading purposes — and a vast do- 
main in the interior. It extends to Lake Bang- 
weolo, in the S. E., to Lake Tanganika, in the 
E. It follows the Eusizi Eiver to 30° E. longi- 
tude, thence to the watershed between the Nile 
and the Congo. Its northern limit, from E. to 
W., runs from that point to 17° E. long., and 
down that meridian, or along the banks of the 
Mobangi, till it joins the French territory on the 
banks of the Congo. Thus it almost touches, on 



174 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

its northeast corner, on the province of Emin 
Pasha, and includes nearly the whole of the great 
lake, Muta Nzige, from which Stanley had been 
forced to retreat when about to embark on its 
navigation many years before. 

On the 26th of February the final sitting of the 
Conference was held, and the Congo Free State 
became an actuality. Throughout the proceed- 
ings Stanley had lent his great experience and 
sage advice to the formation of its opinion, and 
the guidance of its action, and this was publicly 
recognized, upon several occasions, by the repre- 
sentatives of the Governments there assembled. 
He was feted at banquets given in his honor, and 
received with enthusiasm in various cities where 
he lectured. Bismarck paid him special attention, 
inviting him to dinners, and showing, as far as 
he could, his esteem for the great services Stanley 
had performed. This was, no doubt, an hour of 
triumph for our old friend " Bula Matari," but 
long before he had found his reward, if, indeed, 
he had coveted any, in the feeling that he had 
consistently striven his utmost to do his duty. 

The West African territory of France, as de- 
fined by the Berlin Conference, has an area of 
about 250,000 sq. miles. Portugal has about 
100,000 sq. miles more, and a coast-line of about 



THE FOUNDING OF THE FREE STATE. 1?5 

1000 miles. It also possesses about 100 miles of 
bank on the Lower Congo. 

The International Association greatly exceeds 
both these countries in its territorial possessions, 
although in its desire to possess the Lower Congo, 
it yielded some hundred thousand square miles 
of interior to France and Portugal. There is 
secured to Free Trade, by the Berlin Conference, 
about a million and a-half square miles of country. 
The future of this immense region, now welded 
into a State, none can rightly predict. Its height 
of prosperity and acme of power, its ripened 
civilization, and its influence on the world lie in 
the unknown future, and none can gauge the 
extent of trade and wealth of resources which 
a generation or so may bring forth. Africa is 
being rapidly colonized, and still more rapidly 
explored. The Dark Continent has become a 
Twilight one. A generation hence it will be all 
surveyed, and few parts of it will not be colonized, 
or, at least, absolutely controlled by the wiser 
and more efficacious government of the white 
man. When the day comes, on which it may be 
said, with truth, that the Congo Free State is the 
most important and wealthy power in Africa, 
the name of Henry M. Stanley, " Bula Matari," 
will not, we may be sure, be forgotten. Among 



176 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

the pioneers of dark lands he will take a fore- 
most place ; but his name will not be missing in 
the roll of those who have out of the abstract 
created the concrete, out of diversity produced 
unity, out of wild and fiercely-independent sav- 
ages reared a state at once beneficial and endur- 
ing. 

And it must not be forgotten that the enter- 
prise received birth and constant nurture from 
the broad-minded and philanthropic King of the 
Belgians Leopold II. Stanley has never ceased 
to attribute to that monarch the first meed of 
praise ; and it would be foreign to the spirit in 
which this book is written if, in awarding to 
Stanley the palm for heroic labors under the 
torrid sun, we did not give to the enlightened 
monarch who inaugurated and consistently sup- 
ported the entire work of the Association, un- 
stinted praise for his genius of philanthropy and 
its well-deserved success. 

In conclusion, it may be added that the King 
of the Belgians, who had been President of the 
International Association, was shortly afterwards 
elected Sovereign of the Free State. Leopold 
marked his appreciation of the honor by present- 
ing the munificent sum of £50,000 to the funds 
of the State, in order to facilitate the creation 



THE FOUNDING OF THE FREE STATE. 177 

of the necessary administrative authority. The 
headquarters of this authority, including the 
offices of the Ministers of foreign and domestic 
affairs and finance, is situated at Brussels. The 
representatives upon the Congo of this responsi- 
ble ministry are the Administrator -General, and 
his assistant Divisional Administrators. Among 
other officers on the Congo, are a Chief Justice, 
Chief of Police, and a Postmaster-General. A 
complete service of steamers plies up and down 
the Upper Congo, as regularly as on the Lower, 
and, in short, all the paraphernalia of a young 
and vigorous State are now to be found between 

the mouth of the great river and Stanley Falls. 
12 



178 HENRY M. STANLEY. 



CHAPTEE XL 

COMPARATIVE REST. 

In the comparative lull which followed the tur- 
moil of labor, and strain of anxiety, endured by- 
Stanley on the Congo, he was able to go about 
Europe and America, see his old friends, and 
make new friends of the great ones of the world. 
This lull, therefore, supplies an opportunity to 
look back upon the past, and observe some facts 
intimately connected with the explorer's life, but 
which from limit of space have been neglected 
till now. 

Though Stanley has been the recipient of many 
honors, which as years rolled on came upon him 
with increasing thickness, it must not be forgot- 
ten that he has had that hour of trial which falls 
to the lot of most great men. No sooner had he 
scored his first great success, and found Living- 
stone, than many people began to throw doubts 
upon his veracity, and openly accuse him of per- 
verting facts to gain notoriety for the newspaper 
he represented. His expedition, as soon as its 



COMPARATIVE REST. 179 

existence became known, was referred to in a 
slighting manner, as if it were but a mild and 
ephemeral attempt at self-advertisement on the 
part of Bennett. And when he had succeeded, 
distinguished travelers, and men of high position 
and intellectual attainments did not hesitate to 
dispute his geographical discoveries, or express 
their opinion that he had never even seen Living- 
stone ! Time rolled on, and, with its accumula- 
tion of indisputable evidence, the unjust suspicions 
and accusations were vanquished. Then the , 
English geographers and men of travel, with that 
honest candor which is so characteristic of John 
Bull — and his island, unhesitatingly made the 
amende honorable, and welcomed Stanley with 
the greater honor because it had been somewhat 
delayed. 

Notwithstanding the fact that he had silenced 
his too captious critics upon a former occasion, as 
soon as Stanley's exploits in the heart of Africa 1/ 
in his second — the Telegraph Herald — expedition 
were known, there were found men of weight in 
the geographical world to assail his method of 
dealing with the natives. In fact, the poison had 
entered within the charmed circle of the Council 
of the Royal Geographical Society itself, and for 
a time it seemed as if that august body, repre- 



180 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

sentative of all that is best and most admirable 
in the exploration of the world, would withhold 
its welcome to the traveler on his return from 
Africa. Better counsels, however, prevailed ; 
and when the accused was allowed to speak in 
his own defense, he gave what proved, to the 
majority of his listeners, ample reason for his 
behavior under very trying circumstances. His 
retaliation on those who would have murdered 
him, had he shown any ill-timed leniency, was 
perfectly justifiable. He invariably went out of 
his way to avoid hostilities, but when his own 
safety, the safety of his whole expedition, and 
the successful performance of his arduous mission, 
were each and all threatened with complete de- 
struction, by savage and cannibal negroes, Stan- 
ley was not the man — and England, at any rate, 
should not be the nation — to say " Forbear." 
Under the circumstances, forbearance meant an- 
nihilation for the party of peace, the heralds of 
civilization. 

In considering the difficulties which beset Stan- 
ley, and his persistent triumphs over them, it 
should always be remembered that he was the 
first white man to penetrate Africa with a large 
armed force. Then, the marvelously short time 
in which he — with a numerous following — accom- 



COMPARATIVE REST. 181 

plished his journeys, must be taken into account. 
In about four years he journeyed some 10,000 
miles through a savage and hostile country, and 
managed to obtain priceless knowledge of the re- 
sources and possibilities of the land through 
which he passed. 

Without actually comparing the two, it may 
be said that had that African hero, David Living- 
stone, in whose honor too much cannot be written, 
treated his rascally porters, who deserted him by 
scores time and again, with something of the 
severity of Stanley, he would in all probability 
have solved the problem of his beloved Lualaba, 
and found the crown to his self-sacrificing labors 
in the discovery of its identity with the Congo. 
Of the thirty odd years spent by that most pa- 
tient and courageous of men under the fervor of 
the African sun, nearly ten were wasted by the 
unscrupulous conduct of the natives he was com- 
pelled to employ. Twice, when on the threshold 
of discovery, had he to turn reluctantly back from 
the realization of his hopes, in order to humor 
the cowardly hounds on whom his gentleness and 
forbearance had been wasted in vain. "What that 
great man suffered, none will ever entirely know ; 
but we are forced to conclude, from his own writ- 
ings and those of his friends, that had he turned 



182 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

to wholesome discipline when mild remonstrance 
proved of no avail, he would have been saved 
thousands of miles of weary retreat, thousands 
of days of unrewarded labor, and the bitter- 
ness of dying with his years of search unsatis- 
fied by the solution for which they had been 
spent. 

Among the many honors which have fallen 
to Stanley's share may be mentioned the Gold 
Medal of the Eoyal Geographical Society, and the 
Geographical Societies of Paris, Italy, aixl Mar- 
seilles ; the Honorary Membership of nearly all 
the chief Geographical Societies and Chambers of 
Commerce throughout the world ; the Grand 
Commandership of the Order of the Medjidie, 
with the Star and Collar ; an unanimous vote of 
thanks from the United States Congress ; and 
the freedom of the City of London. In addition 
to these honors, the Queen presented Stanley with 
a valuable memento in recognition of his rescue 
of Livingstone ; the late Victor Emanuel gave 
him a gold medal and wrote an autograph letter 
to him, commenting on his great services to 
civilization ; and the present King of Italy pre- 
sented his portrait to the great explorer. Below 
the portrait the following had been written by 
the royal hand : — 



- • 
• - 




EMIN PASHA.— Page 183. 



Henry M. Stanley. 



COMPARATIVE REST. 183 

" All' intrepido viaggiatore 
Enrico Stanley, 
Umberto Be." 

As year after year and success after success 
stamped Stanley's character in a clear and un- 
mistakable manner upon the susceptible surface 
of the public mind, the jealousies and accusations 
of the few sank in the turgid pool they had raised, 
to rise no more. In the year he spent in England, 
after his return from the Congo, no man's words 
or actions or views were regarded with more 
interest and appreciation than were Stanley's. 
He stood out in bold relief against the shadowy 
background of the Dark Continent, as the herald 
of light and civilization, the Columbus of Central 
Africa. And when he had gone to America to 
fulfil a long-promised, and often deferred, lectur- 
ing tour, a tour, be it remembered, which would 
have been highly remunerative as well as pleas- 
ant — England could find no man but Stanley to 
serve her turn when the silence which had settled 
over the Equatorial Province of Emin Pasha 
cried loudly for relief. Without a moment's 
hesitation, he returned to London and placed his 
services at the disposal of the Committee of the 
Emin Relief Expedition. 



184 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

It is now time to describe the state of things 
brought about in the Soudan by the fall of 
Khartoum and the death of that Soldier-Saint, 
Charles George Gordon ; and how it came to 
pass that Englishmen should conceive it their 
duty to relieve his faithful servant, Emin Pasha. 
When in the spring of 1878 Gordon returned for 
the second time to Khartoum — this time as 
Governor-General of the whole of the Egyptian 
Soudan, he appointed Dr. Schnitzer, a Prussian 
— who to enhance his usefulness among the 
Mohammedan races, and suppress his European 
extraction as much as possible, had adopted the 
Arabic name of "Emin" — as Governor of the 
Equatorial Province, which Gordon himself had 
ruled in 1876 and 1877. At that period Emin 
had served under Gordon, first as chief medical 
officer, and afterwards as his most trusted co- 
adjutor in the general conduct of affairs. The 
province of which Emin was now appointed 
governor extends from the borders of Uganda and 
Unyoro, and the Lake Albert N'yanza on the 
South, to a region about 150 miles north of Gon~ 
dokoro on the Nile, and nearly 1000 miles distant 
from Khartoum. Though its government had 
always been a thorn in the side of the Khedivial 
dynasty, the fertility and natural resources of 



COMPARATIVE REST. 185 

the country were beyond dispute. But the miser- 
able weakness and peculation of the Egyptian 
governors had fostered a system of oppression 
without which it would seem the Oriental magnate 
cannot exist ; and they had actually farmed out 
huge districts to notorious slave-traders. During 
his short tenure of office, Gordon had done much, 
and though unable to place the province upon an 
independent financial basis, he had stemmed the 
flood of slave-caravans which swept over the 
country, and brought the region into something 
like security and order. No sooner had he retired, 
however, than the worthless officials appointed 
in his stead revived the old system of plunder 
and peculation, in justice and indolence, and last, 
though not least, the baffled though not broken 
trade in slaves. With the return of Gordon to 
Khartoum, as Governor-General of the Soudan, 
affairs once more took a favorable turn ; and in 
appointing Emin Pasha to the governorship of 
the Equatorial Province, he proved his ability to 
detect the qualities of a great man, and his will- 
ingness to find him suitable occupation. 

On taking charge, Emin found much to dis- 
hearten him. The slave-traders had emerged 
from the obscurity into which Gordon by active 
measures had compelled them to retire, and 



186 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

settled themselves in fortified villages all over the 
province. The men who were his subordinates, 
and the soldiers on whom he had to rely, proved 
to be "hand in glove" with the slave-traders. 
The various stations erected under Gordon's 
active rule had been allowed to collapse by his 
indolent successors. The people had been crushed 
by oppressive fines, whole villages destroyed by 
marauding banditti, and the government of the 
province was almost hopelessly in debt. 

With the determination of a master-mind, of a 
leader of men, Emin set himself to produce order 
out of chaos. Within the space of a year he had 
rebuilt the dilapidated stations, removed all 
unjust taxation, and made his people look up to 
him with respect and loyalty. Within three 
years, by dint of energy which knew no tiring, 
he had induced his subjects to cultivate their 
land with steady industry, and transformed a set 
of miserable, hunted, and oppressed tribes into 
an agricultural and thriving population. He 
had built permanent roads, and established a 
weekly post throughout the province. He had 
added largely to his territory by just and honor- 
able means. Moreover he had converted a prov- 
ince which had never been anything but a drain 
upon the Egyptian treasury into one which was 



COMPARATIVE REST. 187 

self-supporting. He had converted a yearly 
deficit of £30,000 into a balance of £8,000 ! And, 
finally, he had swept the slave-dealers from the 
face of the country. 

The enormity of the African slave-trade can 
never be insisted upon too much. The Arabs, 
who make it their business to deal in this " ebony " 
trade, while ostensibly seeking for ivory, are 
a heartless and infamous set of scoundrels. 
Whether they are pure Muscat Arabs or have a 
proportion of negro blood in their veins, their 
conduct is such as to justify the African proverb, 
" God made the whites, and God made the blacks ; 
but the devil made the Arabs." By a merciless 
system of slaughter, they are draining the life- 
blood of Central Africa. Without able-bodied 
natives, without beaten tracks and frequent vil- 
lages, without waving fields of grain, and shady 
groves of bananas, the white man will be power- 
less to advance in Africa. If the Arabs are al- 
lowed to depopulate the interior at the enormous 
rate they are now proceeding, the day will come 
when the steps of civilization will be halted at 
the margin of a vast wilderness. There will be 
none to cultivate the fertile fields — there will be 
no fields to cultivate. This slavery question is 
not confined to the negro ; it involves loss or 



188 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

gain to the civilized world. If Europe refuses to 
acknowledge the dictates of humanity, it should 
at least observe the counsels of self-interest. 
The riches of Central Africa — inexhaustible as 
they may be — cannot be garnered without the 
aid of the son of the soil ; and if the wholesale 
slaughter which is carried on by the Arab slave- 
dealers be not speedily checked, that unfortunate 
individual — so much more sinned against than 
sinning — will have taken his place among the 
interesting, but no longer existing realities of the 
past. 

The enormous cruelty of the slave-dealers is 
exhibited in the following instance, cited by the 
author of "The Arab in Central Africa." In 
that work he speaks of an Arab caravan which, 
throughout the space of eleven months, ravaged 
a county about 30,000 square miles in extent. 
At the end of this time, about 2, 300 captives were 
obtained. In capturing these no less than 118 
villages were destroyed, and about 4,000 people 
killed. This particular caravan was the fifth of 
its kind to scour the same country, and therefore 
it was computed that altogether about 30,000 
lives had been sacrificed in the attempt to obtain 
a very much smaller number of slaves. Cardinal 
Lavigerie has declared that not less than 400,000 



COMPARATIVE REST. 189 

slaves are annually brought into the market, and 
that as many as 2,000,000 of lives must have been 
sacrificed in capturing and bringing this number 
to the coast ! It will be remembered how Stan- 
ley was struck by the extreme fertility and nu- 
merous villages of Manyema, as he struck across 
country from the Tanganika to Nyangwe. To- 
day, nearly the whole of the country is a depopu- 
lated and devastated desert. The Tanganika it- 
self is a very high-road of caravans. Professor 
Drummond has narrated how the crafty Arab 
will sometimes settle for a year or so in some 
favorable spot, and accumulate enormous quan- 
tities of ivory, until all his money is gone. Then, 
on some slight pretext, he will simulate a right- 
eous indignation, which, of course, ends in a 
quarrel, and the quarrel in war. As the Arab 
has a large number of well-armed followers, the 
result is a foregone certainty. A massacre of 
the natives ensues, the villages are burnt, and 
those who are likely to be most saleable on the 
coast are utilized to carry the loads of ivory, 
which have been so patiently and artfully ac- 
quired. 

Such are the scoundrels and such their ways 
that Emin manfully banished from his province. 
No sooner, however, had he placed his house in 



190 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

order, than the cloud, which had been looming 
in the north, burst with disastrous effect. 

The Mahdi revolt swept along the country from 
Bahr-el-G hazel to Khartoum, and completely 
shut off Emin from communicating with Gordon. 
Fortunately, the province had been made self- 
sustaining, or Emin would have been speedily 
forced to resign. This his colleague, Lupton Bey, 
the Governor of the Ghazel, was compelled to do. 
Though frequently summoned to surrender to 
the Mahdi, Emin maintained his ground and 
fortified his more tenable positions, making Wa- 
delai his headquarters. In spite of all difficulties, 
and constant attacks, he has held his own to the 
present time. 

In 1886, there came from Dr. Junker, the well- 
known traveler, then in Uganda, letters and 
newspapers for the beleaguered Pasha, the first 
he had received for three years, and a despatch 
from the Egyptian Government. This despatch 
was to the effect that, as the Soudan had been 
abandoned, Emin might quit the country directly, 
how and whither he pleased. Such was the 
official reward reserved for a faithful servant, 
such the views of the Egyptian Government. It 
need hardly be added that Emin's ideas of duty 
failed to coincide with those of the Khedive. 



COMPARATIVE REST. 191 

Moreover, the only road of retreat, that to Zan- 
zibar, was closed. He determined to continue 
among his people, who loved and served him with 
unflinching loyalty, to stick to his post, do his 
duty, and wait for better days. 

The mental strain of enforced solitude has 
proved too much for many an able man. But 
Emin apparently was not affected in this way, 
although he was practically left alone in his 
Soudanese Province after 1878. 

And from 1884 he was completely cut off from 
regular communication with the outside world. 
Such a privation, as lack of intercourse with 
civilization would be to a man of Emin's keen 
intellect and warm sympathy, was undoubtedly 
lessened by his enthusiastic love of nature in her 
manifold branches. 

Dr. Hartlaub has written of this side of the 
man, in eloquent terms. " The amount of 
work," he said, "which Emin Pasha has per- 
formed in making zoological collections, obser- 
vations, and notes, is astonishing in the highest 
degree. It could only have been performed by a 
man whose heart was aglow with the pure fire 
of scientific instinct, with enthusiastic, absolutely 
unselfish, love of nature, and with an irresistible 
impulse to add to the knowledge of her treasures, 



192 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

to the full extent of his powers. Emin was able 
to turn this impulse into action, notwithstanding 
the pressure of difficulties surrounding circum- 
stances, and the many and varied duties which 
his high position compelled him to fulfil." 

This exceptional man did not, however, allow 
his scientific enthusiasm to wean him from his 
first duty to his people. As is the case with all 
well-balanced minds, Emin made science sub- 
serve the higher pursuit of philanthropy. Lend- 
ing his extensive knowledge to the use, as it were, 
of his people, he began a series of more or less 
successful experiments with a view to bringing 
out the full capacity of the country. He clearly 
proved the adaptability of the soil to various 
agricultural methods, and organized his province 
in such a manner as to facilitate, should the op- 
portunity arise, the successful issue of commer- 
cial enterprise. 

It was to bring relief to such a man as this, 
that Stanley returned from America, and, under 
the direction of the Emin Eelief Committee, pre- 
pared an expedition to reach this faithful devotee 
to duty by way of the Congo. The difficulties 
before him were great enough to check the eager- 
ness of the most experienced traveler ; but, as 
we have seen again and again, an obstacle only 



COMPARATIVE REST. 193 

exists for Stanley to be overcome. The route 
from Stanley Falls to Wadelai was unknown 
country, reputed to be inhabited by fierce canni- 
bals, and rendered by its physical character still 
more difficult to penetrate. Even supposing his 
safe arrival at Wadelai, there would arise the 
question of return. A large, armed force, such 
as Stanley would be obliged to take, would re- 
quire an enormous amount of food, and, if the 
natives proved hostile, this would have to be ex- 
acted by force of arms, precluding the possibility 
of returning by the same route. For, on this first 
journey, tribes of savages might be met and con- 
quered separately, whereas on the return inarch 
the entire population of the country would meet 
the naturally weakened force with an organized 
front. 

These and numerous other difficulties existed, 
and Stanley frankly admitted the fact. How he 
successfully combated each as they arose, and 
pushed his way through vast unexplored regions 
to the faithful Emm, is a story of thrilling 

expectation which must now be told. 
13 



194 HENRY M. STANLEY. 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE RELIEF OF EMEtf PASHA. 

Without money — and a good deal of it too — 
the Emin Eelief Expedition could not be sent a 
foot on its way. The " sinews of war "were 
supplied by a Government grant of £10, 000 from 
the Egyptian Treasury, and by another sum of 
about £10,000 which was raised by a number of 
private individuals — chief among whom were Mr., 
now Sir William, Mackinnon, Chairman of the 
British India Steamship Co., and President of 
the Imperial British East Africa Company ; and 
Colonel Sir Francis W. de Winton, K.C.M.G., 
at one time in charge of the Congo Free State, 
and more recently connected with African geog- 
raphy and development in general. The Eoyal 
Geographical Society subscribed a further sum of 
£1,000 on the understanding that it received first- 
hand geographical information. On all sides the 
greatest interest was evinced, and Stanley became 
— not for the first time — " the man of the hour." 



THE RELIEF OF EMIN PASHA. 195 

King Leopold, as Sovereign of the Congo Free 
State, placed at the disposal of the Eelief Com- 
mittee the entire naval stock of the Free State 
for the transport of men and material to Stanley 
Falls. The appointments on Stanley's Staff were 
sought by nearly 500 applicants ! The popularity 
of the expedition was remarkable, and all eyes 
centered on Stanley and his movements. 

On the 13th of January, 1887, a few days be- 
fore his departure from England, Stanley was 
presented with the freedom of the City of Lon- 
don, enclosed in a casket of ivory and gold. His 
speech upon that occasion plainly revealed the 
arduousness of the undertaking. Referring to 
Emin as " the last white captain of the Soudan," 
he spoke of him as being environed by breadths 
of unknown territory, inhabited by savage races. 
These races had proved hostile to Emin's retreat, 
and would be equally hostile to the advancing 
reliever. He also emphasized the fact that the 
Eelief Expedition contemplated no annexations, 
would not unduly arouse native hostility, nor 
trench on German susceptibilities by disturbing 
their protectorate. Curiously enough— in the 
light of his subsequent plans— he declared that 
the return route least open to danger was that 
from Wadelai to the Congo, and not, as many 



196 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

would have it, that from the Albert N'yanza to 
Zanzibar. 

On the 21st of January, 1887, Stanley left 
Charing Cross for Cairo. " Had he been a king," 
wrote an eye-witness, u we could not have wished 
for a more striking testimony of the esteem in 
which he is held here, and of his widespread popu- 
larity, than the ovation which was made him." 
In February, Stanley arrived at Zanzibar, where 
he recruited largely among his former followers 
— the Wangwana. He also performed a good 
stroke of diplomacy by engaging the great Tippu 
Tib, whom he found there. The engagement of 
the renowned Arab Chief was to guarantee 
the expedition immunity from hostile tribes and 
the intrigues of Arab slave-dealers, who, though 
beyond the influence of the Free State, were 
amenable to the wishes or commands of the 
richest Arab in Equatorial Africa. Tippu Tib 
was to be governor of Stanley Falls Station, with 
powers to defend that place against all comers. 

This step of Stanley's was regarded by many 
with something more than suspicion, but yet he 
had reason to know his man. On the 24th of 
February, he and Tippu Tib concluded a treaty 
together, the former acting on behalf of the King 
of the Belgians, the sovereign of the Independent 



THE RELIEF OF EMIN PASHA. 197 

State of the Congo, and the latter speaking for 
himself and his undoubted influence. Two 
articles of this treaty may be quoted here. 

(1) " Tippu Tib binds himself to hoist the flag 
of the Congo State on the station near the Stan- 
ley Falls, and to make respected the authority of 
the State on the river Congo and all its tribu- 
taries, as well at his station as down the river, as 
far as to the river Aruwimi. He undertakes to 
prevent the Arabs and the tribes there estab- 
lished from carrying on the slave-trade." 

(2) "The present arrangement will be valid 
only so long as Tippu Tib or his ad interim 
substitute (provided for in another clause) shall 
fulfil the conditions here enumerated." 

Sailing round the Cape of Good Hope, the ex- 
pedition reached Banana Point on the 18th of 
March. The whole force was reembarked in 
steamers provided by the Free State, and on the 
following day proceeded up the Congo. At 
Matadi the cataracts compelled the party to take 
to the banks, along which they marched to 
Leopoldville. Between these points lies the route 
of the projected railway, which will at once ren- 
der the Upper Congo and its superior climate 
easily attainable by those who have neither con- 
stitution nor temperament to withstand the un- 



198 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

healthy climate of the coast-belt or the rigors of 
a march through the Congo Canon. 

Leaving Leopoldville, on the 29th of April, in 
four steamers and three steel lighters, Stanley 
arrived off the Aruwimi in the month of June. 
It should interest the reader who has followed 
the fortunes of " Bula Matari " through this book, 
to know that the garrison of Leopoldville was 
composed of Ban galas — those fierce savages who 
had fought Stanley with relentless fury on his 
first descent of the Congo, and whom he had sub- 
sequently found so powerful and prone to war. 
What a contrast — this of 1887 — to that of ten 
years before ! 

At the head of the navigation of the Aruwimi 
— just below the first rapids — Stanley built the 
intrenched and palisaded camp of Yambuya. 
Here he left a large reserve of supplies and about 
250 men, under the command of Major Barttelot, 
the senior officer of his staff and a brave and 
energetic soldier. On the 28th of June, 1887, 
Stanley set out on his march to Kavalli, with a 
force of about 400 men. For a few days news of 
him came back to the camp on the Aruwimi, and 
then silence — a deathlike silence reigned. 

Month after month rolled by, but no voice came 
out of the stillness to speak of his progress or 




MAJOR BARTTELOT.— Page 198. 

Henry M. Stanley. 



THE RELIEF OF EMIN PASHA. 199 

safety. As time went on, and the suspense be- 
came more acute, expectation gave way to disap- 
pointment and disappointment to misgiving and 
doubt. Now and again rumors came through 
native channels — rumors of famine and disease, 
fighting, defeat, capture— rumors even of death. 
They came to the East coast and the West, and 
thence were sent to Europe. They filtrated 
through the Soudan and reached us in Egypt. 
The Khalifa and his fanatical lieutenants seized 
upon them and converted them into reports of 
Mahdist triumphs. Emin was defeated, and he 
and Stanley captured! The clouds thickened, 
and the continuing silence deepened the gloom 
which hung over the Equatorial Province. 

Out of the silence of the vast Soudan a message 
at length came. In a letter to Tippu Tib, Stan- 
ley himself announced, from the camp of Bunalya 
or Murenia, his safety and his success. He had 
met Emin on the Albert N'yanza, and found him 
well and prosperous. He had come down to the 
neighborhood of the Congo for his stores and 
rear-column, and, though terribly disappointed 
at the tidings he had received, was about to return 
to Emin. He had traversed the return journey 
in 82 days, and the road, now known, had ceased 
to be difficult. He asked Tippu Tib to accom- 



200 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

pany him, but this the Arab chief refused to do — 
as he had previously refused to accompany Jame- 
son, who offered him, it is said, an enormous sum 
as an inducement. Stanley mentioned that both 
Emin and Casati, the Italian traveler, were well, 
and consequently refuted the report that the 
latter had been murdered by natives. He also 
said that he had left his white companions with 
Emin, which disposed of Osman Digna's announce- 
ment of the capture of only two white men — 
Emin and the White Pasha. Subsequent events 
proved that there was half a truth in this report, 
for from August, 1888, to January, 1889, Emin 
and Mr. Jephson, one of Stanley's officers, were 
prisoners in the hands of the Egyptian soldiery 
of the Equatorial Province. Mr. Jephson, in 
fact, was the White Pasha. 

On the 3d of April, 1889, the long-expected and 
long-delayed letters from Stanley arrived, and 
were published in the papers. They had been 
written at the end of August and in the beginning 
of September, 1888, and had taken five months to 
reach the mouth of the Congo. They revealed a 
story of great distress, much disease and death, 
fearful difficulties, final triumph. Written in the 
well-known forcible style of the great explorer, 
they informed an expectant world of the well- 



THE RELIEF OF EMIN PASHA. 201 

being of the beleaguered Emin, and of the geog- 
raphy of a region before unknown. Written 
with the graphic pen of one who has encountered 
the difficulties he describes, who has himself 
achieved the success he relates, these letters of 
Stanley's will forever remain remarkable in his- 
tory as the record of an unparalleled combination 
of pluck and perseverance in the heart of a sav- 
age and inhospitable continent. But we must 
give the wonderful story of adventure and dis- 
covery in its chronological sequence, and show how 
Stanley had reached Emin on the Albert N'yanza, 
and why he should have appeared again — almost 
on the very banks of the Congo — without the 
rescued Pasha. 

On leaving his rear-guard intrenched at Yam- 
buya, on the 28th of June, 1887, Stanley, with 
the main body of the expedition, followed the 
bank of the Aruwimi, and very soon made ac- 
quaintance with that native hostility which was 
to dog his steps almost to the very end. For, at 
their approach to the first town of importance, 
the natives, warned by the loud beating of their 
watchman's drum, set fire to their frail huts, and 
withdrew into ambush in the forest, there to 
await the passing of the advancing strangers. 
Now the approach to these towns in the river 



202 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

valley was in itself a glaring example of the sub- 
tleties of savage warfare, for the path was honey- 
combed with shallow pits, which were filled with 
splinters, so sharply pointed as practically to be 
skewers, and hidden from the sight of all but the 
most experienced by a light layer of leaves and 
branches. To add to the deception, these ap- 
proaches were cleared by the forest people for 
some hundred yards or so, and formed — what is 
so unusual in Central Africa — a wide and direct 
avenue to the village. The real approach would 
be narrow and tortuous, making a wide detour, 
and the apparently direct path all the more allur- 
ing. And then, with a fine sense of strategic 
warfare, the natives would hail their poisoned 
arrows and spears upon the expedition at the 
very moment when the discovery of the hidden 
pits had thrown it into confusion and panic. One 
can readily imagine the effect of such an experi- 
ence upon the barefooted and half-clothed Wang- 
wana from Zanzibar, and appreciate more fully 
the command Stanley must have acquired over 
his men to have rallied them time after time, and 
induced them to present an orderly front to their 
hidden assailants in the dense jungle on either 
hand. 
From the 5th of July to the middle of October 



THE RELIEF OF EMIN PASHA. 203 

the expedition kept by the bank of the Aruwimi. 
The river presented a noble aspect, varying in 
width from 500 to 900 yards, and dotted over with 
islets frequently covered with a dense tropical 
growth. On some of these islands, however, 
there appeared products of other than the vege- 
table world, for Stanley has recorded his amaze- 
ment at the enormous number of oyster shells 
which he found piled on them. ' ' On one island, " 
he wrote, " I measured a heap thirty paces long, 
twelve feet wide at the base, and four feet 

high." 

Despite the number of men who had been 
wounded by the peculiar mode of defense adopted 
by the natives, as well as by their actual attacks, 
the expedition marched on without actual loss 
till August 1st. On that day, however, the first 
death occurred, and in the next nine days' march 
through a wilderness where food was unobtain- 
able, several members of Stanley's force suc- 
cumbed to their injuries, and matters began to 
have a serious aspect. On August 13th, on arriv- 
ing at Avi-sheba, five men were killed by poisoned 
arrows, and Lieutenant Stairs was badly wounded. 
Two days later, a number of men under the com- 
mand of Mr. Mounteney Jephson, lost their way, 
and until the forces were united, six days later, 



204 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

the liveliest apprehensions were entertained of 
their annihilation by the utterly savage natives. 
On August 25th, Stanley pitched his camp ex- 
actly opposite the spot where the Nepoko, here 
almost as wide as the Aruwimi, plunges down in 
a fine cataract into the latter river, and six days 
later he fell in with a party of slaves, belonging 
to one Ugarrowwa, who turned out to have been 
a tent-boy in the service of Captain Speke. It 
will be remembered that Speke, in company with 
Burton, had discovered Lake Tanganika, and 
afterwards, with Grant, reached the shores of 
the Victoria N'yanza, and beheld the White Nile 
flowing out of its northern extremity. 

Stanley put down this chance meeting with the 
Arab slave-dealers' party as the beginning of his 
greater misfortunes. He had taken the Congo 
route to Emin's province in preference to those 
which lay through Masai-land, through Unyam- 
wezi, or through Usukuma, in order to avoid the 
demoralizing influence of the Arabs and their 
huge caravans of ruffianly soldier-slaves. That 
his dread of such influence was not ungrounded 
was proved by the simple fact that, within three 
days of this meeting with Ugarrowwa's men, no 
fewer than twenty-six of his own followers had 
deserted. And, since misfortunes do not come 



THE RELIEF OF EMIN PASHA. 205 

singly, his men proved to be so broken with the 
labor of cutting through the interminable forest, 
and so reduced in strength by prolonged hunger, 
that he was compelled— much against his will — 
to leave fifty-six Somalis and Soudanese in the 
care of Ugarrowwa. With much reduced num- 
bers, therefore, he pushed on again through the 
forest, whose gloom was never broken by the rays 
of the sun, and in whose reeking depths lurked 
not only the ghostly demons of fever and malaria, 
but also the incarnate fiends who dogged their 
steps with a malice and persistent hostility which 
are almost incredible. 

For a hundred and sixty days — from the end of 
June to the middle of November — Stanley and 
his followers hacked and hewed their way through 
this deadly forest jungle. "Take," wrote that 
wonderful man to his friend, Mr. Bruce, "take 
a thick Scottish copse, dripping with rain ; 
imagine this copse to be a mere undergrowth, 
nourished under the impenetrable shade of ancient 
trees, ranging from 100 to 180 feet high ; briars 
and thorns abundant ; lazy creeks meandering 
through the depths of the jungle, and sometimes 
a deep affluent of a great river. Imagine this 
forest and jungle in all stages of decay and 
growth — old trees falling, leaning perilously 



206 NRY M. STANLEY. 

over, fallen prostrate ; ants and insects of all 
kinds, sizes, and colors murmuring around ; mon- 
keys and chimpanzees above ; queer noises of birds 
and animals ; crashes in the jungle as troops 
of elephants rush away ; dwarfs with poisoned 
arrows, securely hidden behind some buttress, or 
in some dark recess ; strong brown-bodied aborig- 
ines with terribly sharp spears, standing poised, 
still as dead stumps ; rain pattering down on 
you every other day in the year ; an impure 
atmosphere, with its dread consequences, fever 
and dysentery ; gloom throughout the day, and 
darkness almost palpable throughout the night ; 
and then, if you will imagine such a forest ex- 
tending the entire distance from Plymouth to 
Peterhead, you will have a fair idea of some of 
the inconveniences endured by us." 

The last month spent in forcing their way 
through the forest was a memorable one. The 
Arabs had devastated the region through which 
the expedition was now passing ; and of inhabit- 
ants, and, consequently, of food, there was no 
trace. In their feeble condition this was even 
worse than active hostility. Between their leav- 
ing Ugarrowwa's and entering the settlement of 
Kilinga Longa (a Zanzibari slave- agent of an 
Arab trader), no fewer than fifty-five men either 



THE RELIEF OF EMIN PASHA. 207 

died of starvation or deserted. The fungi, the 
wild fruits — especially a large bean-shaped nut — 
formed the staple of food — food that had to be 
sought and found and gathered in great quantity 
before it could satisfy the pangs of the famished 
people. And when Kilinga Longa's was reached, 
even Stanley's influence was unable to prevent 
his followers selling their clothes, their ammuni- 
tion, or the very weapons which constituted their 
sole defense in this hostile land, for the poorest 
food. When the expedition left this settlement 
behind, it was almost in a state of beggary, and 
its native members were abso y in a state of 
nudity. 

At Kilinga Longa's, Stanley left Captain 
Nelson, one of his officers, in the charge of the 
able surgeon of the expedition, Dr. Parke. Nel- 
son was too ill to march, and rest was imperative. 
To the care of these gentlemen about seventy 
loads of goods were entrusted, — the men being 
unable to carry them any further — together with 
the large boat, which was being carried.in sec- 
tions, and was destined for use on the Albert 
N'yanza. Thirty-eight natives, completely worn 
out, were also left in the charge of Nelson and 
Parke. Of this number, only eleven rejoined 
the expedition, the rest having died or deserted ; 



208 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

and of the fifty-six who were left at Ugarrowwa's, 
all died but sixteen ! 

At length, twelve days after leaving Kilinga 
Longa's, Stanley reached the district of Ibwiri, 
and at the same time the eastern limit of the 
great forest. The joy with which the whole ex- 
pedition hailed the open grassy country which 
lay before them was unbounded. The forest — 
which, according to Stanley, covers an area of at 
least a quarter of a million square miles, or, in 
other words, five times the area of England — had 
oppressed them with its gloom, had fostered the 
fever and ague, the dysentery and other ills from 
which they had suffered so greatly, and had 
sheltered the relentless savages who dogged their 
every step. Now at Ibwiri their sufferings termi- 
nated for a time. 

" Ourselves and men," wrote Stanley to Sir 
William Mackinnon, "were skeletons. Out of 
389 we now only numbered 174, several of whom 
seemed to have no hope of life left. . . . The 
suffering had been so awful, calamities so numer- 
ous, the forest so endless apparently, that they 
refused to believe that by and by we should see 
plains and cattle, and the N'yanza, and the white 
man, Emin Pasha. They turned a deaf ear to 
our prayers and entreaties, for, driven by hunger 



THE RELIEF OF EMIN PASHA. 209 

and suffering, they sold their rifles and equip- 
ments for a few ears of Indian corn, deserted 
with the ammunition, and were altogether de- 
moralized. . . .We halted thirteen days in lb wiri, 
and reveled on fowls, goats, bananas, corn, sweet 
potatoes, yams, beans, etc. . . . There were 
still 126 miles from the lake ; but, given food, 
such a distance seemed nothing. . . . After 160 
days' continuous gloom we saw the light of broad 
day shining all around us, and making all things 
beautiful. We thought we had never seen grass 
so green or country so lovely. The men literally 
yelled and leaped with joy, and raced over the 
ground with their burdens. Ah ! this was the 
old spirit of former expeditions, successfully com- 
pleted, all of a sudden revived ! " 

On December 9th, Stanley entered the country 
of a chief called Mazamboni. This district was 
so thickly populated, and village followed so 
quickly on village, that the road lay right through 
an almost unbroken street. Mazamboni viewed 
the approaching force with disapproval, and 
finally declared that it must be driven from the 
land. Over the hills that arose on either hand 
the people came rushing to the sound of the 
war-drums and horns ; yells of defiance rang 

from hill-top to hill- top across the valleys; and 
14 



210 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

down the gentler slopes hundreds and hundreds 
of naked savages descended on the little band 
that was fighting its way to the lake. Throw- 
ing out a wing right and left, and pressing for- 
ward with his main body, Stanley drove these 
wild hosts back over the hills they had crossed 
so blithely in the morning — in the evening, doubt- 
less, sadder, wiser men. But all fighting was 
not over, for the next day they were attacked 
four distinct times, and on the next the fighting 
was incessant. For three days these Baregga 
poured down from the hills on the rear and flank 
of the column, and for three days, unable to 
come to terms, "we simply pressed on," wrote 
Stanley, "and fronted them on each occasion 
with smoking Eemingtons, until the waste 
tract along the N'yanza gave us a breathing 
spell." 

At one P. m., on the 13th of December, 1887, 
after a brief camp for rest and refreshment, the 
expedition moved on in its eastward march. 
And now let Stanley tell his own tale. 

"Fifteen minutes later, I cried out, ' Prepare 
yourselves for a sight of the N'yanza.' 

"The men murmured and doubted, and said, 

" £ Why does the master continually talk to us 
in this way ? N'yanza, indeed ! Is not this a 



THE RELIEF OF EMIN PASHA. 211 

plain, and can we not see mountains at least four 
days' march ahead of us ? ' 

" At 1.30 p. M. the Albert N'yanza was below 
them ! 

" Now it was my turn to jeer and scoff at the 
doubters, but as I was about to ask them what 
they saw, so many came to kiss my hands and 
beg my pardon, that I could not say a word. 
This was my reward." 

About six miles in front of them lay Kavalli, 
the objective point of the expedition ; and beyond 
Kavalli, the blue expanse of the Albert N'yanza. 

The Aruwimi Eiver, along whose valley Stan- 
ley had journeyed for so many miles and through- 
out such eventful days, rises a little to the north- 
west of the Lake. About 100 miles above 
Yambuya, it exchanges its well-known name for 
that of Suhali ; but as the confluence of the Ne- 
poko is approached, it assumes the name of Nevoa, 
which is again exchanged — as soon as the con- 
fluence is passed — for No- Welle. Some 300 miles 
from its junction with the Congo, it is called the 
Itiri, which soon develops into Ituri, the name it 
bears to its source. The region traversed in fol- 
lowing the river has a gentle trend from the 
plateau near the N'yanza to the valley of the 
Upper Congo, a declination in all of about 4000 



212 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

feet. Northward no land rises higher than some 
five or six thousand feet, but about due south, at 
a distance of some fifty miles from the camp on 
the N'yanza, there rises the lofty mountain mass 
of Euwenzori. Between Yambuya and the 
N'yanza five distinct languages were encountered. 
Save where the devastations of the Arabs had 
made the country a wilderness, there were numer- 
ous villages and abundance of provisions. But 
until they set foot on the grass land about fifty 
miles west of the N'yanza "we saw nothing," 
said Stanley, "that looked a smile, or a kind 
thought, or a moral sensation. The aborigines 
are wild, utterly savage, and incorrigibly vindic- 
tive. The dwarfs — called Wambutti — are worse 
still, far worse." 

Although Stanley had arrived at the lake, he 
had not yet heard anything of Emin ; and as he 
was unable to procure tidings of the beleaguered 
Pasha, he at once determined to march back 
again, through the country of the hostile Baregga 
for the boat which had been left behind. On 
arriving at Ibwiri, he built a fort — Fort Bodo — 
and sent 100 men under Lieutenant Stairs to 
Kilinga Longa's, 190 miles distant, for the boat, 
stores, and the two officers, Captain Nelson and 
Surgeon Parke. On their return, he set out for 







M. J. A. MOUNTENEY JEPHSON.-Page 213. 

Henry M. Stanley. 



THE RELIEF OF EMIN PASHA. 213 

the second time for the lake. This was on the 2d 
of April, 1888. On this his third passage through 
the hostile tribes of the grassy country, he 
managed to overcome native objections, and made 
"blood-brotherhood" with the most powerful 
chiefs — Mazamboni being the first to set the 
example. 

Stanley now sent Mr. Jephson in the boat to 
Mswa station, Emin's southernmost outpost. 
This was by way of reply to a note which he had 
received from the Pasha, who had heard that a 
white man was at the southern end of the lake. 
Six days later Stanley encamped on the same 
ground he had occupied on the previous Decem- 
ber, and at 5 P. M. of that day, the 29th of April, 
1888, the Khedive steamer hove in sight, and two 
hours afterwards Emin Pasha, together with 
Signor Casati and Mr. Jephson, arrived at the 
camp. 

The meeting of these two great men, the one 
who had found Livingstone, only to learn of him 
and admire, and the other who accepted his task 
at the hands of Gordon, and performed it with a 
fidelity on the plane of heroism, must have been 
a supreme moment for them both. Stanley's 
feelings at that meeting may well be imagined. 
All the suffering and hardship, the famine and 



214 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

fighting, were as nothing compared with the 
pleasure of heing face to face with the object of 
his search, the faithful Governor of the Equa- 
torial Province. 



DARK DAYS. 215 



CHAPTEE XIII. 

DARK DAYS. 

The day after meeting with Emin, Stanley 
moved his camp to a more favorable spot, about 
three miles from Nyan Sassic — and there re- 
mained till the 25th of May. During the whole 
of this month he could come to no understand- 
ing with the Pasha, who, now that the long- 
looked- for relief was at hand, seemed more and 
more reluctant to leave the Province over which 
he had so long held sway. For at this point in 
the history of the Relief Expedition, it was sup- 
posed by Stanley— and, indeed, by the whole of 
Europe — that Gordon's old lieutenant had mag- 
netized the Egyptians and Soudanese, who formed 
the bulk of his people, into a state of consummate 
trust and reliance in their leader. Time, how- 
ever, had other revelations in store. 

Meanwhile, Stanley labored at convincing the 
Pasha that the best thing he could do was to 
retire. It was true that Emin had reported 



216 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

having two battalions of regular soldiers— 1400 
strong— and a large force of clerks, artisans, and 
irregulars of many sorts ; that he had announced 
the fact that if he made up his mind to go away 
from the Province, some 8000 followers would 
coincide with his views and join him in his exo- 
dus, but at the same time his opinions fluctuated 
between the two opposite poles, and for several 
weeks he was quite unable to decide whether it 
were better to go or to remain. On one point he 
was decided — the Egyptians should go. Even at 
the first meeting, when so much that should have 
been said was suppressed, Emin referred to the 
Egyptians as being disloyal, and eager for the 
return to the lower valley of the Nile. 

To the curious indecision of Emin was added 
the no less curious view that Captain Casati, the 
Italian traveler and companion of Emin, took of 
his own position. Unsaddled by official cares and 
unfettered by government responsibilities, he, at 
least, who had but a short time before barely es- 
caped with his life from the hands of Kabba 
Eega, King of Unyoro, might have been sup- 
posed to be willing to accompany the Relief Ex- 
pedition out of the country. But no. 

"What the Governor Emin decides upon," 
said he, "shall be the rule of conduct for me 



DARK DAYS. 217 

also. If the Governor stays, I stay. If the Gov- 
ernor goes, I go." 

To a man of Stanley's promptness of action and 
decided views, this irresolution of the very indi- 
vidual he had gone through so much to relieve, 
must have been exasperating in the extreme. 
But Stanley, although he is the same " self- 
willed, uncompromising, deep fellow" that he 
was described in his youth, has gone through 
much since those early days. Although he has 
been accustomed to have his own way pretty 
well in the arrangement of his various African 
campaigns, he has been confronted by too many 
a difficulty in carrying them out, to imagine that 
his desire would invariably be shaped in the deed. 
In fact, this knowledge of difficulties that would 
certainly arise, and the consequent careful provi- 
sion for such emergencies, are prime factors in 
his marvelous success. No man could look for- 
ward with greater care, and provide more fully 
for that unexpected turn of the tide which so 
often happens in the things of the world, as well 
as in matters African, than " Bula Matari," the 
great stone-breaker of the Congo Canon. And in 
evading such obstacles, by sacrificing much of his 
desire in order to ensure a more complete render- 
ing of the deed, Stanley learnt the art of self- 



218 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

government. Many a time when physical dif- 
ficulties — the eternal forest, the malarious swamp, 
the wide and rushing river, the desolate and 
desert plains — had arisen before him, teaching 
him the great natural law of patience, Stanley 
had understood that his cue was to endure ; and 
now that he was confronted by the moral dif- 
ficulty of another's indecision, he came to the 
conclusion that it would be well to wait awhile, 
and trust to the working of time. This must 
have been a veritable " self-denying ordinance " 
for such a man as he, and subsequent events only 
too clearly showed that he met with a poor reward. 
All this long while, from within a few days of 
his leaving Yambuya, Stanley had heard nothing 
whatever of his rear-guard, under the command 
of Major Barttelot. It was owing to want of 
carriers that this portion of the force had been 
left behind, and it was an understood thing that, 
as soon as Tippu Tib supplied — as he had prom- 
ised — the necessary number of carriers, the rear- 
guard should follow in Stanley's track to the 
lake. This being the arrangement, Stanley left 
the great bulk of the ammunition, clothing, and 
general baggage of the Expedition at the pali- 
saded camp on the Aruwimi, and now that he 
had found Emin and was willing to play a " wait- 



DARK DAYS. 219 

ing game" for that individual's decision, his 
thoughts once more turned to the anxious sub- 
ject of the rear-guard and its fortunes, with the 
result that he determined to march back and 
meet it. 

Accordingly, on May the 25th, 1888, he bade 
Emin Pasha " au revoir" leaving with him as 
his representative Mr. Mounteney Jephson. The 
Pasha agreed, after informing his people as to 
Stanley's movements and propositions, to visit 
Fort Bodo, which was to be then vacated and des- 
troyed, and to return with Stanley's officers to 
the camp on the Albert N'yanza. For Stanley, 
knowing that he could march with a greater 
speed in the absence of the special food, medi- 
cines, and baggage which Europeans would re- 
quire, had determined to march right back again 
through the fearful forest, alone with his Zanzi- 
baris. On the 8th of June he arrived at Fort 
Bodo, which he found in a thriving condition. 
Just outside the fort nearly ten acres had been 
planted with corn and beans, and beyond this 
plot of ground lay vast plantations of bananas. 
Comfortable whitewashed houses had been 
erected, and the health of the men appeared to 
be excellent. 

Leaving instructions with his officers, Lieuten- 



220 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

ant Stairs, Captain Nelson, and Dr. Parke, 
Stanley left Fort Bodo on June 16th, with 212 
men, and eight days later reached Kilinga 
Longa's. From there it took him more than a 
month to get to Ugarrowwa's settlement, or, 
rather, where that settlement had "been. For 
Ugarrowwa, having plundered the natives of all 
the ivory they possessed, or could procure for 
him, and desolated the surrounding country, had, 
after the manner of the Arab slave-trader, moved 
on to pastures new. As, however, Stanley had 
taken the precaution at Fort Bodo to load every 
one of his carriers with 60 pounds of corn, he 
passed through the devastated country without 
serious inconvenience. 

Stanley was now able to procure some canoes 
and descend the river itself, and he pressed on 
with such despatch that, in about three weeks, 
he overtook Ugarrowwa, who had left his former 
settlement three months before. This was on 
the 10th of August, and a week later Stanley 
met his rear-guard, or what remained of it, at a 
place called Bunalya, but a short distance from 
Yambuya. 

And now we must go back a little in order to 
give a brief account of the fateful story of this 
unfortunate portion of the Eelief Expedition. 



DARK DAYS. 221 

It will be remembered that on the 28th of June, 
1887, Stanley left a portion of his force, together 
with the bulk of his baggage, in an intrenched 
and palisaded camp at Yambuya, on the Aru- 
wimi. In charge of this he placed Major Bartte- 
lot, a dashing young officer who had seen excel- 
lent service with the British colors in Egypt, 
and who was his second in command. With 
Barttelot was Mr. Jameson, an African traveler 
of some experience. Both were ignorant, how- 
ever, of the language of the men under their 
charge. They were subsequently joined by 
Messrs. Ward and Bonney, who had been left, 
owing to inadequate means of transport, with 
120 men at Bolobo, and by Mr. Rose Troup, the 
transport officer of the expedition, and who was 
delayed at Stanley Pool. Messrs. Ward and 
Troup, of the five white officers in the rear- 
guard, alone knew the language of the force 
under their command, which numbered about 
250. Stanley had arranged that Tippu Tib, the 
Arab governor of Stanley Falls, should procure 
about 600 carriers in order that the rear-guard, 
with its enormous amount of impedimenta, might 
be able to march in his track. 

While waiting for these carriers, Major Bartte- 
lot was to hold the camp at Yambuya. Of this 



222 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

camp Mr. Werner lately in the service of the 
Congo Free State, and who in the capacity of 
engineer of one of the State's steamers, visited 
it, has given us an admirable account. 

"The fort or stronghold," he writes in his 
book, — " A Visit to Stanley's Rear-Guard," — 
" containing all the stores as well as the huts of 
the Europeans, was an enclosure some sixty paces 
(say twenty-five to thirty yards) square, enclosed 
by a strong palisade of sticks, from two to three 
inches in diameter, and twelve to fifteen feet in 
length. These were planted as close together as 
possible, just leaving room to insert the muzzle 
of a gun between them. On the side facing the 
river, the palisade was planted on the very edge 
of an almost vertical descent of fifty feet. This 
side, being perfectly unassailable by natives or 
Arabs, needed no further defense. The two en- 
trances to this enclosure were about three feet 
wide, and defended by a door formed of planks 
made from the thick bottoms of large canoes. 
These doors were closed every night, and two 
men set to guard them. The trench was crossed 
by means of some light planks, which could have 
been pulled up in less than half a minute." 

Mr. Eose Troup, one of the garrison of this 
fort, has given an unflattering account of its 



DARK DAYS. 223 

healthiness. He wrote, on returning home in- 
valided, that, "in a private letter Stanley de- 
scribes the place as being remarkably healthy, but 
our experience proved it to be quite the contrary, 
as all the country at the back of the camp was of a 
swampy character, calculated to prostrate quickly 
with malarial fevers all the white men." 

It was within this fort that, for nearly twelve 
long months Major Barttelot and his companions 
were compelled to await the pleasure of Tippu 
Tib for the promised carriers. Much has been 
written for and against this individual, but there 
can be little doubt that Stanley had over-esti- 
mated the staying power of Tippu's virtue. 
When the treaty was signed at Zanzibar, and 
Tippu took charge of Stanley Falls, it is quite 
probable that the famous half-caste Arab trader 
meant to fulfil his obligations. But when Stan- 
ley had disappeared into the darkness of the un- 
known basins of the Aruwimi, and month after 
month rolled by without a word to tell of his 
safety or his success ; when, in the place of that 
veteran of African travel, he had to deal with a 
young officer who was ignorant of his tongue, 
and who had had some misunderstanding with 
his nephew, it his quite certain that Tippu's good 
resolutions were forgotten, and his zeal in the 



224 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

cause waned. Moreover, he had suspicions that 
Stanley had motives ulterior to the rescue of the 
Pasha ; he shrewdly — and not unnaturally — 
thought that " Bula Matari " meant to " eat up " 
the very core of the great continent, even as he 
had eaten up, or colonized, the great river Congo. 
At any rate, whatever he thought in his own dark 
heart, he preserved an outward semblance of 
friendship, while he managed to delay, month 
after month, the necessary carriers, and, as a 
consequence, the march up the valley of the Aru- 
wimi in Stanley's steps. 

At last Major Barttelot grew desperate. The 
constant and continuous delay almost over- 
powered the man whose courage, boldness, and 
thirst for action were so conspicuous. A palaver 
with Tippu was accordingly arranged ; the inter- 
preter explained to Tippu the views of the Major 
and his companion. The hut was surrounded by 
a throng of low caste followers, whose immediate 
presence, at the barred but unglazed window, 
must have been entirely dispensable ! The re- 
sult of this interview was that Tippu sent a large 
number of carriers to the camp on the Yambuya, 
but with orders — so Mr. Werner subsequently 
heard — to shoot Major Barttelot should he not 
treat them well. Any one who knows the Afri- 



DARK DAYS. 225 

can character will be able to interpret this as a 
practical command to put an end to poor Bartte- 
lot's life, a sad event which was very shortly to 
occur. 

When, on the 10th of June, 1888, Major Bartte- 
lot was at last enabled to make a move out of 
camp, he had lost two of his brother officers— Mr. 
Eose Troup, who had been invalided home, and 
Mr. Ward, who had been sent to the coast to 
communicate with the Eelief Committee. On 
the 19th of July, Major Barttelot was cruelly 
murdered by the wretched carriers for whom he 
had waited so long, and though the murderer was 
subsequently captured and executed, the result 
was a general stampede. Left without carriers, 
the two remaining officers, Mr. Jameson and Mr. 
Bonney, had a sore task before them. The for- 
mer hastened down the river to Bangala to pro- 
cure fresh carriers, but contracted fever and soon 
after died. Mr. Bonney, the junior officer of the 
expedition, was left in charge of the remains of 
the rear-guard, and it was he who alone welcomed 
Stanley when, on the 17th of August, 1888, that 
wonderful man once more issued from the im- 
penetrable gloom of the great forest, to find his 
hopes shattered and his resources scattered to 

the four winds. 
*5 



226 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

What his feelings must have been, perhaps the 
reader can hardly imagine. He had been march- 
ing steadily for nearly three months through the 
most difficult country, in search of his rear-guard, 
in order to help them in their task of fol- 
lowing him, and now, when within a few marches 
of his original starting point, he came upon that 
rear-guard in a state of complete demoralization, 
and the valuable stores on which he had so 
much counted largely reduced. Out of five offi- 
cers, but one remained. Out of 257 men, but 71 
were left, and of these about twenty were unfit 
for service. Of the stores more remained than 
Stanley's few carriers could take, 'but unfortu- 
nately, as a report of his death had reached the 
camp at Yambuya, his personal clothing, medi- 
cines, provisions, and a number of other neces- 
saries, had been sent down the Congo. " Strange 
to say," wrote Stanley to the Emin Eelief Com- 
mittee, "they have kept two hats, and four pairs 
of boots, and a flannel jacket, and I propose to go 
back to Emin Pasha, and across Africa with this 
truly African kit. Livingstone, poor fellow, was 
all in patches when I met him, but it will be the 
reliever himself who will be in patches this time." 

In all respects the blow was a great one, but 
Stanley was not the man to succumb to dis- 



DARK DAYS. 227 

appointments or waste time in regrets. Like the 
man of action he is, that very day he wrote to 
Tippu Tib for help, and set about packing up, 
with Mr. Bonney's aid, for the march back to 
the N'yanza. He wrote those letters which, 
arriving in England in the following April, cre- 
ated so profound an impression ; and, with a re- 
quest to Tippu to follow him and join him if he 
possibly could, on August the 27th he once more 
plunged into the silence and obscurity from which 
he had but a few days before emerged, and, for 
the third time, braved the toil, peril, and hostile 
savages of the great Aruwimi Forest. 

All went well for a time, but some distance 
above the former settlement of Ugarrowwa's, 
Stanley essayed the right bank of the Aruwimi, 
here known as the No-welle or Ituri, and shortly 
afterwards was confronted by an unfordable 
tributary called the Thuru. Following this 
stream northward in search of a crossing place, the 
party struck its right branch, which some Wam- 
butti dwarfs they captured call the Dui. This 
was soon bridged, and Stanley found himself in a 
country unknown to, and consequently unvisited 
by the slave-raiders. It was thickly peopled by 
the Wambutti dwarfs — those curious people 
whom Professor Flower has supposed to be the 



228 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

aborigines of Central Africa — and the country 
itself was one unending vast forest. 

It was while between the two branches of the 
Thuru Eiver that Stanley and his expedition 
came nearest to extermination. "This," he 
wrote, " has been the nearest approach to ab- 
solute starvation in all my African experience." 
For nine days he served out as the daily allow- 
ance for 130 people — some 150 having already 
been sent to forage, if necessary far and wide — a 
broth composed of a pot of butter, a pot of con- 
densed milk, a cupful of flour, and water in 
sufficient quantity to make the concoction go the 
round of this large number of hungry individuals. 
At last, the foraging party returned with food ; 
but not before twenty-one people had succumbed 
to their sufferings at "Starvation Camp." 

On December the 18th, 1888, the Thuru Eiver 
was crossed, and two days later Stanley arrived 
at Fort Bodo. Contrary to arrangements, but 
not to his presentiments, he found that fort 
still occupied by the officers he had left there. 
Moreover, there were no tidings whatever of 
Emin or Mr. Jephson. During the whole of the 
seven months of Stanley's absence, not a word 
had been heard of the white men or of the state 
of affairs on the Albert N'yanza. And yet the 



DARK DAYS. 229 

Lake was hardly a fortnight's march from the 
fort ! This fact alone well illustrates the dif- 
ficulties of communication in the heart of that 
continent of surprises. 

Stanley was anxious about Emin, and equally 
anxious about his own officer, Mr. Jephson. 
Before three days had elapsed, therefore, he was 
on his way to the Lake. For the fifth time he 
passed through the plains of Ibwiri, and the 
country of the Baregga, and on this occasion 
complete harmony was established. Ample sup- 
plies were forthcoming, and with the exchange 
of gifts and the performance of the ceremony of 
blood-brotherhood, an excellent understanding 
was arrived at. Stanley had almost reached the 
Lake before he heard any tidings of the missing 
men ; but when those tidings came, in the form 
of a long letter from Mr. Jephson and two notes 
from Emin, they were of such a character as to 
throw the dreadful ruin of the camp at Yambuya 
completely into the shade. 

Then, and for the first time, Stanley heard 
what no one had hitherto dreamed of. The ex- 
cellent government and the orderly condition of 
the Equatorial Province had ceased to exist long 
before. The two battalions of regulars had for 
years resisted the Pasha's authority, and had 



230 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

twice attempted to make him a prisoner. Mr. 
Jephson wrote that " the Pasha possessed only a 
semblance — a mere rag — of authority, and if he 
required anything of importance to be done he 
could no longer order — he was obliged to beg — 
his officers to do it. . . . In May, '88, we thought, 
as most people in Europe and Egypt had been 
taught to believe by the Pasha's own letters and 
Dr. Junker's later representations, that all his 
difficulties arose from events outside his own 
country ; whereas, in point of fact, his real 
danger arose from internal dissensions. Thus 
we were led to place our trust in people who 
were utterly unworthy of our confidence or help." 
Emin Pasha and Mr. Jephson were themselves 
prisoners in the hands of the rebels, and to add to 
the danger of their position, the Mahdists were 
sweeping down upon the unfortunate Province, 
and had already taken possession of Lado. But 
as the soldiers who were led by Emin's rebellious 
officers against the forces of El Mahdi were on 
all sides repulsed, matters began to mend for 
Emin. For the soldiers, becoming panic-stricken, 
declared that the Pasha must be set free, and ac- 
cordingly he was given his liberty. Then Emin, 
in company with Jephson and Casati, retired to 
Wadelai, but as matters again became complicated 



DARK DAYS. 231 

— the Mahdists continuing to march southward 
without suffering repulse — the unfortunate Gov- 
ernor fled with his companions to Tunguru, a 
station on the Lake itself, and but two days' 
journey by steamer from Nsabe, Stanley's camp. 
But this took place while Stanley was still in the 
heart of the Aruwimi forest, and it was not until 
two months later that news came of his arrival 
on the Lake once again. Stanley had received 
Mr. Jephson's letter, and he immediately sent 
him orders to return. This Jephson did, though 
not without difficulty. For the chief of Tunguru 
was opposed to his leaving, and Emin could do 
nothing to help him. Moreover he had to pass 
through the territory of a chief called Melindwa, 
the Pasha's most deadly enemy. But in spite of 
rough weather on the lake, and cruel enemies on 
shore, Jephson pluckily held on his way, and, on 
February the 6th, safely arrived at Stanley's 
camp, on the plateau above Kavalli. 

The story he had to tell Stanley was a painful 
one. With the outbreak of open rebellion, Emin's 
mind seemed to grow less rather than more 
decided. Weak in health, half-blind, and con- 
sumed by an affection for his people which be- 
came a morbid sentiment, the Pasha could neither 
make up his mind to go nor to stay. 



232 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

" If my people go, I go," he said. " And if they 
stay. I stay." 

Casati kept up the embarrassment of the situa- 
tion by echoing Emms irresolution; "If the 
Governor goes, I go. If the Governor stays, I 
stay." 

And, wrote Stanley, "the Faithful reply: If 
the Pasha goes, we go. If the Pasha stays, we 
stay." 

Such a state of affairs was exasperating to a 
degree. Not only had the Equatorial Province 
been lost to civilization, but the object of the 
relief — Emin himself — refused to be relieved. 
Stanley had written a letter to Jephson in which 
he pointed out that the time had gone by for 
argument, and that he was prepared for action. 
" This time," he wrote, " there must be no hesita- 
tion, but positive yea or nay, and home we go." 
The convictions formed by Jephson during his 
nine months' sojourn in the Province were 
summed up thus: " Sentiment is the Pasha's 
worst enemy — no one keeps Emin Pasha back 
but Emin Pasha himself." 

"With any other man than the Pasha or 
Gordon," wrote Stanley home, "one could im- 
agine that, being a prisoner, and a fierce enemy 
hourly expected to give the coup mortal, he would 



DARK DAYS. 233 

gladly embrace the first chance to escape from a 
county given up by his Government. But there 
was no hint in those letters what course the 
Pasha would follow." Stanley, however, decided 
that something more than a hint was now re- 
quired, and accordingly, on the 7th of February, 
he despatched couriers to Emin with a letter to 
the effect that if help were needed, help could be 
sent ; but that in any case the reply must be 
positive, as delay was fatal. 

On the 13th of February, a messenger arrived 
in Stanley's camp, bearing a letter from Emin. 
The Pasha was on a steamer then at anchor off 
the shore ! 



234 HENRY M. STANLEY. 



CHAPTEE XIV. 

HOMEWARD WITH HONOR. 

Emin had reached Stanley, but only with the 
loss of his Province. To go back there would 
have been certain death. The Mahdists were 
flowing southward over that once well-governed 
country, like the tide over the sea-shore. And 
in front of this irresistible wave there came fly- 
ing the scum of the Egyptian soldiery, who had 
rebelled against the very man who could have 
helped them most. Emin would have received 
less mercy at the hands of his own soldiers than 
at those of the fanatic followers of El Mahdi. 
When he and Jephson fled from Dufile to Tun- 
guru, they had been condemned to be hung, and 
hung they would have been had they fallen again 
into the power of the rebels. 

The disintegration of the Equatorial Province 
had been gradual, and therefore all the more 
sure. When his officers, and the battalions 
under them, first rebelled against Emin's au- 



HOMEWARD WITH HONOR. 235 

thority, all that complete and just government 
which he had established received a shock from 
which it was never to recover. The outlying 
parts of the Province were thereafter at the 
mercy of a military control which knew no con- 
science. Only time was needed to extend that 
regime to headquarters at Wadelai and its im- 
mediate vicinity, and in time that also took 
place. The arrival of Stanley, and the subsequent 
mission of Jephson to proclaim throughout the 
Province the news of relief sent by Britain and 
the Khedive, brought matters to a crisis. 

" It is a lie," said the people. " Khartoum has 
not fallen. That is the road to Egypt, and we 
will only go by that road, or live and die in this 
country." 

The onset of the Mahdists, the rebellion of the 
soldiers of the Province, and the imprisonment 
and subsequent flight of Emin, were the last 
events in the final chapter of the splendid stand 
for the cause of civilization which Emin had 
made. That defense had been conceived on lines 
so philanthropic and humane, that one may well 
pardon the Pasha's irresolution when he saw the 
Province he had once administered so wisely and 
so well, relapsing hopelessly into a state of an- 
archy and barbarism. But no force was available 



236 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

with which to withstand force, and the day of 
his personal influence had gone by. Stanley was 
waiting at the Lake to lead him, and such of 
his people as remained faithful, out of the coun- 
try, and thence once more into civilization ; and to 
Stanley, though with obvious reluctance, he at 
length came. The step saved his life. 

On the day following Emin's arrival at Stan- 
ley's camp, a " divan " was held, at which Emin 
and several of his officers were present. In the 
course of discussion it was clearly pointed out by 
the leader of the relief expedition that it was now 
time for him to depart, and, therefore, for them 
to decide whether they would remain in Africa 
or leave with him for the coast. If they decided 
to depart, Stanley offered to wait a reasonable 
time to allow them to gather their people and 
their baggage together. This offer was deemed 
fair, and twenty days were fixed as a reasonable 
period of preparation. 

In the meanwhile, Stanley made ready for the 
long march to the coast. The first thing needful 
was bodily health, and Dr. Parke was, as Stan- 
ley wrote to Sir William Mackinnon, " at this 
time the hardest worked man in the expedition. 
Ever since leaving Fort Bodo in December, Sur- 
geon Parke attended over 100 sick daily. There 



HOMEWARD WITH HONOR. 237 

were all kinds of complaints, but the most numer- 
ous, and those who gave the most trouble, were 
those who suffered from ulcers. So largely had 
these drained our medicine chests that the sur- 
geon had nothing left for their disease but pure 
carbolic acid and permanganate of potash. 
Nevertheless, there were some wonderful re- 
coveries during the halt of Stair's column on the 
Ituri River in January. The surgeon's ' devotion ' 
— there is no fitter word for it — his regular atten- 
tion to all the minor details of his duties, and his 
undoubted skill, enabled me to turn out 280 able- 
bodied men by the 1st of April, sound in vital 
organs and limbs, and free from all blemish ; 
whereas on the 1st of February, it would have 
been difficult to have mustered 200 men in the 
ranks fit for service. I do not think I ever met 
a doctor who so loved his ' cases.' " 

Full busy, too, were the Zanzibari carriers in 
bringing countless loads of baggage — character- 
ized by Stanley as " rubbish " — belonging to the 
refugees, from the lower camp, on the lake shore 
to the higher camp on the plateau nearly 3000 
feet above. Day after day the task went on, un- 
til Stanley, who well knew that when the order 
to march was given nearly the whole of the im- 
pedimenta would have to be left behind, refused 



238 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

to allow his men to work any longer at such futile 
labor. 

The appointed time of waiting passed by, and 
none of the Egyptian officers who had returned 
to Wadelai to acquaint the soldiers of Stanley's 
offer had reappeared. Emin begged Stanley to 
wait a little longer, but, after giving the rebels 
a few days' grace with no result, the latter made 
up his mind to march at once. The fact of the 
matter was, that the Egyptians required time to 
put into practice a conspiracy, subsequently dis- 
covered, to attack the camp with treachery, and 
plunder Stanley as they had previously plundered 
Emin. But they did not know the man they had 
to deal with, for the plot was not only discovered, 
but the ringleader promptly executed and his 
confederates flogged and put into irons. More- 
over Stanley threatened to put every one to death 
who should prove rebellious or turn traitor. 

At last, Emin's scruples having one by one 
been overcome, the now united forces set out 
from Kavalli on the 10th of April, 1889. Their 
total number was about fifteen hundred — three 
hundred and fifty carriers having been procured 
in the neighboring district. Emin's people, who 
numbered over five hundred, were made up thus : 
134 men, 84 married women, 187 female domes- 



HOMEWARD WITH HONOR. 239 

tics, 74 children above two years, and 35 infants 
in arms. Truly a curious caravan to march half 
across Africa with ! 

Two days after starting— when the expedition 
was encamped at Mazamboni's — Stanley was 
placed hors de combat by an illness which brought 
him almost to death's door. Owing, however, to 
the careful and skilful treatment of Dr. Parke, 
combined with his own tough constitution, Stan- 
ley was enabled, after the lapse of a month, to 
take the lead once more, and set his caravan 
again in motion. 

Until they reached the river Semliki, which 
Stanley had ascertained flowed into the Albert 
N'yanza, and hence was a source of the White 
Nile, the expedition held on an almost direct 
southerly course. The river was in itself a great 
discovery, for up to the date of Stanley's arrival 
on it, geographers had supposed that the Victoria 
N'yanza was the ultimate feeder of the Nile. 
But here was a river which, according to Stan- 
ley, was quite two-thirds the width of the Vic- 
toria Nile, and which had an average depth of 
nine feet. Whence came this river ? That ques- 
tion also he was to decide. 

Marching up the Semliki Valley, through the 
country of Awamba, there loomed clearer and 



240 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

clearer to the advancing travelers the mighty 
mountain mass of Ruwenzori. In that great 
snow-ciad group Stanlsy identified the " Moun- 
tains of the Moon " of the old Arab geographer 
who, four hundred years before, wrote that 
" from the Mountains of the Moon the Egyptian 
Nile takes its rise. It cuts horizontally the 
Equator in its course north. Many rivers come 
from this mountain, and unite in a great lake. 
From this lake comes the Nile, the most beauti- 
ful and greatest of the rivers of all the earth." 
Stanley, in his letter to the Eoyal Geographical 
Society, paraphrased this old geographer thus : 
" From Euwenzori, the snow mountain, the 
western branch of the Upper Nile takes its rise. 
Many rivers come from this mountain, and unit- 
ing in the Semliki River, empty into a great 
lake, named by its discoverer the Albert N'yanza. 
From this lake, which also receives the eastern 
branch of the Upper Nile, issues the true Nile, 
one of the most famous of the rivers of all the 
earth." 

This most interesting mountain mass, crowned 
in the center with perpetual snow, was ascended 
to a height of nearly 11,000 feet by Lieutenant 
Stairs. His report revealed the chief features of 
the mountain as seen from comparatively close 



HOMEWARD WITH HONOR. 241 

quarters. Starting on June 6th, with 40 Zanzi- 
baris, he soon left the highest native huts behind, 
and after passing through a dense growth of 
bamboos, came upon tree-heaths, growing to a 
height of some twenty feet. Pitching camp 
among these heaths, and safely passing the night 
in an unusual altitude for Central Africa, the fol- 
lowing day Lieutenant Stairs continued his ascent 
till within a couple of miles or so of a snow-peak. 
At this point, unfortunately, wide and deep ra- 
vines occurred, and as the party was not prop- 
erly equipped for mountaineering, the order to 
retreat was given. Lieutenant Stairs had gath- 
ered much, however, in the course of his ascent. 
It appears that Ruwenzori is covered with a snow 
cap, which descends more than a thousand feet 
down the mountain side. The general formation 
of the whole mass is briefly this : In the center 
are the highest peaks, snow-clad. From them 
radiate huge spurs, which gradually, by other 
spurs, spread themselves out on the plains below. 
Down the western side— the only side investi- 
gated as yet— flow snow-fed streams, which di- 
verge as they reach lower altitudes and run at a 
greater angle, finally flowing into the Semliki 
River, and thence to the Albert N'yanza. The 
origin of this stupendous mass in the very core 



16 



242 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

of the continent is evidently volcanic, the highest 
as well as many of the lower peaks being appar- 
ently extinct craters. While Stairs and his 
party were on the mountain, little or no animal 
life was seen, although there existed many indi- 
cations of a prevalence of game of some sort. 
The only birds that were noticed were of a dull 
grayish brown hue, not unlike stone chats. In 
fact, as compared with an ascent of a mountain 
almost on the equator made about the same time 
— that of the Owen Stanley range in New Guinea, 
by Sir William Macgregor, and where birds of 
the most dazzling plumage were quite common 
— that of Ruwenzori holds out few a-ttractions to 
the naturalist beyond its remarkable position and 
height, and its contribution to the hydrography 
of Central Africa. 

In passing up the Semliki Valley, Stanley found 
it first grassy, then thinly studded with acacias 
and other trees, and subsequently claimed by the 
uncompromising grasp of the tropical forest. 
At first level, the valley gradually rises, and at 
a distance of about seventy-five miles from the 
Albert N'yanza, it reaches a height of nearly a 
thousand feet above that lake. It is near this 
point that the western extremity of Euwenzori 
abuts on the river valley. The great quantity 



HOMEWARD WITH HONOR. 243 

of sediment found in the water of the Semliki 
accounts, so Stanley thought, for the extreme 
shallowness of the Albert at its southern end. 
After passing through the thick forest belt of the 
Semliki, the expedition entered on a fine open 
grassy region — Ukonju and Usongora — which 
retained that character until the Muta N'zige 
was reached. 

This lake, which is now known to be very much 
smaller than it has been mapped by geographers, 
owes its chief interest to the fact that it receives 
all the streams at the head of the southwestern 
basin of the Nile, and in turn discharges them 
by the Semliki into the Albert. The Victoria 
N'yanza, receiving the waters of the south- 
eastern basin of the Nile, and discharging them 
also into the Albert, affords a remarkable par- 
allel. Stanley named the Muta N'zige, on the 
occasion of this his second visit, — for it will be 
remembered that he visited its eastern shores in 
his first march across the Dark Continent, — 
"Albert Edward," out of respect, he said, to the 
first British Prince who has shown an interest 
in African geography. The sentiment is good 
enough, but it is to be deplored that the custom 
of retaining the native name is not more gener- 
ally observed. Burton wisely left the Tanganika 



244 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

the name with which he found it ; and Living- 
stone acted similarly with regard to the Nyassa. 
Baker has always regretted that he followed suit 
toSpeke(with his " Victoria" N'yanza) by call- 
ing the lake he discovered the " Albert," and it is 
still more unfortunate that Stanley should have 
perpetuated an evil fashion by calling the famous 
old Muta N'zige the "Albert Edward N'yanza." 
There is, however, one excellent excuse for such 
a system of nomenclature. In days when the 
nations of Europe are land-grabbing in Africa 
with more voracity than honesty, it may be use- 
ful to stamp the nationality of discoverers, trav- 
elers, and exploiters upon the region in which 
their labors lie ! Had the N'yassa been called 
the " Livingstone," and the Shire river the 
" Mackenzie" or the "Kirk," even the Portu- 
guese might have blushed to make the preten- 
sions to those regions that they have in years 
past, and in the time now present. 

In the march along the Semliki valley, Stanley 
had met with much opposition at the hands of the 
natives, owing to their being in league with Kab- 
ba Rega, the powerful but unfriendly king of 
Unyoro, a country which lay to the westward of 
Euwenzori. On arriving at Kative, an impor- 
tant town on the northwestern shore of Muta 



HOMEWARD WITH HONOR. 245 

N'zige (or Albert Edward N'yanza), Stanley 
marched in a north-easterly direction to the 
northern point of the lake, and then, following 
an almost due south course, he entered Unyam- 
paka, whose king proved friendly. Thence he 
marched in a fairly straight line through the 
countries of Ankori, Karagwe, and Uhaira to 
Usinja. For various reasons — all however 
strictly personal — the kings of these countries re- 
ceived the advancing host in an amiable manner, 
but the climate was not equally friendly. There 
was much sickness in the camp, and in one day 
alone, no fewer than 150 cases of fever were re- 
ported. 

It was when in Usinja that Stanley made 
another discovery of great importance. This was 
nothing less than a southwesterly extension of 
the Victoria N'yanza, which increased the area it 
had hitherto been credited with by nearly six 
thousand square miles. The southern point of 
this extension is in S. lat., 2° 48', thus bringing 
the Victoria within 155 miles of Lake Tanganika. 
It would appear that this discovery had been de- 
ferred so long by the overlapping chain of islands 
which bars, as it were, this great southwestern 
bay from the lake proper. The real importance 
of the discovery, however, lay in the fact that 



246 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

the Victoria was thus really so near to the Tan- 
ganika that the idea of navigating the inland 
waters of Africa, from the mouth of the Nile to 
the mouth of the Zambesi, ceased to be a mere 
chimera. Already the Zambesi had been used as 
an entrance to the Shire, and this river as one to 
the Nyassa. Thence to Tanganika, the Steven- 
son Eoad had been made the connecting link ; 
and now that the Victoria — which had been again 
and again reached from Khartoum by river — was 
found to be so much nearer to the Tanganika 
than had been supposed, the hopes of those who 
centered them on Africa, and the conversion of 
its great continental wastes to civilization, were 
aroused to the highest pitch. If a canal should 
eventually be found possible — when, that is, a 
responsible commercial State takes charge of the 
Tanganika and its eastern and northern basins, 
and renders such a work probable — then one of 
the greatest difficulties presented by the African 
continent will have disappeared. In that tropi- 
cal country, where the horse and the mule are 
comparatively useless, water-ways form the most 
convenient and comfortable, as they are the most 
expeditious means of travel and commerce. By 
placing the Victoria so much nearer to the Tanga- 
nika, Stanley revived the hopes of those who 



HOMEWARD WITH HONOR. 247 

spend and are spent for Africa— hopes that had 
been cruelly shattered by the reversion of the 
Equatorial Province to the tyranny of the rene- 
gade and fanatic. 

On the 25th of August Stanley arrived at 
Usambiro, the Church Missionary Society's 
station south of the Victoria Lake, and where 
Mr. A. M. Mackay had labored since his expul- 
sion from Uganda. This marked the close of the 
march through absolutely new countries, and 
hitherto unknown peoples. In a letter to Mr. 
Marston, Stanley said that " at last we came to 
a church, whose cross dominated a Christian 
settlement, and we knew that we had reached the 
outskirts of blessed civilization." 

Mr. Mackay — " The Modern Livingstone," as 
Stanley called him — received the wearied travel- 
ers as his guests, and the fortnight spent at the 
Mission station was a period of delightful rest 
for the whole party. Here, also, Stanley received 
a large consignment of goods which had been 
awaiting him for eighteen months, and a packet 
of mails which had fortunately not been sent on 
to Uganda, and consequently escaped the des- 
truction which they would have shared with the 
mission station in that troubled country. 

Once again the huge caravan was set in motion 



248 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

and now the route of its march lay through the 
southern portion of Usukuma and thence, skirt- 
ing the northern districts of Ugogo, to the well- 
known station of Mpwapwa, situated in the Ger- 
man protectorate. At this junction it may be 
well to quote Stanley's remarks on his geographi- 
cal discoveries, which were of the most important 
character, and added to the honor he gained 
by his heroic, and finally successful efforts to save 
the life of Emin Pasha. 

' Over and above the happy ending of the ap- 
pointed duties, we have not been unfortunate in 
geographical discoveries. The Aruwimi is now 
known from its source to its bourne. The great 
Congo Forest, covering as large an area as France 
and the Iberian Peninsula, we can now certify 
to be an absolute fact. The Mountains of the 
Moon, this time beyond the least doubt, have 
been located ; and Euwenzori, the Cloud King, 
robed in eternal snow, has been seen, and its 
flanks explored, and some of its shoulders as- 
cended, the Gordon Bennett and Mackinnon cones 
being but giant sentries warding off approach to 
the inner area of the Cloud King. On the south- 
east of the range, the connection between the 
Albert Edward N'yanza and the Albert N'yanza 
has been discovered, and the extent of the former 



HOMEWARD WITH HONOR. 249 

lake is now known for the first time. Range 
after range of mountains have been traversed, 
separated by such tracts of pasture land as 
would make the cowboys out west mad with 
envy ; and right under the burning Equator we 
have fed on blackberries and bilberries, and 
quenched our thirst with crystal water fresh from 
the snow-beds. We have also been able to add 
nearly six thousand square miles of water to the 
Victoria N'yanza. Our naturalist will expatiate 
upon the new species of animals, birds, and plants 
he has discovered. Our surgeon will tell what he 
knows of the climate and its amenities. It will 
take us all we know how to say what new store 
of knowledge has been gathered from this un- 
expected field of discoveries. I always suspected 
that in the central region between the Equatorial 
Lakes something worth seeing would be found, 
but I was not prepared for such a harvest of new 
facts. This has certainly been the most extra- 
ordinary expedition that I have ever led into 
Africa." 

At last, November 10th, the expedition arrived 
at Mpwapwa. On the last day of that month it 
reached Msua, and, on the 1st of December, 
Mbiki, a village some four days' journey from 
the coast. At Msua, Stanley was met by an 



250 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

expedition sent by his old patron, the New York 
Herald, and which brought him a goodly supply of 
luxuries and comforts. Emin and his people also 
received a similar supply from an expedition 
under a German officer, and the Herald's special 
correspondent had packets of letters and personal 
comforts, sent by the Italian consul at Zanzibar, 
for Captain Casati. As the expedition approached 
the coast, it assumed the appearance of a tri- 
umphal march. Parties of couriers and small 
caravans were continually meeting it with letters 
and telegrams of congratulations and loads of 
extremely welcome luxuries. The hour of danger 
was past : that of triumph was at hand. 

On the 4th of December, Major Wissman, who 
had himself twice crossed Africa, and was then 
in charge of German interests at Bagamoyo, met 
the advancing expedition on the banks of the 
Kinghani Eiver. On the following morning, 
Stanley and Emin ; riding on horses supplied by 
Wissman, and accompanied by that distinguished 
traveler, entered Bagamoyo, the port for Zanzi- 
bar. The whole town was decorated with palm 
leaves and triumphal arches, and both Stanley 
and Emin received the heartiest acclamations. 
They were welcomed by the Captain of the 
German warship Sperber, in the name of the 



HOMEWARD WITH HONOR. 251 

Emperor William ; by the Judge of the English 
Consular Court, as representing the Queen ; and 
by Mr. Nichol, on behalf of the Emin Relief 
Committee. A salute of nine guns was fired 
simultaneously, by the soldiers under Major 
Wissman, and by the war-ship Sperber. In the 
evening a grand banquet was given by the Major, 
who made a speech in which he described Stanley 
as his master in African exploration. Stanley, 
replying, spoke feelingly of those soldiers whose 
bones lay bleaching in the forest, declared that 
with the whole party the one word had been 
" Onward," and thanked God that he had been 
permitted to do his duty. 

But even now that they were among friends, 
danger was to dog them yet. The evening which 
had begun so propitiously closed disastrously. 
Emin, who was half-blind, walked through a 
window whose height he had misjudged, and fell 
heavily to the ground, a distance of twenty 
feet. When picked up he was quite unconscious, 
and it was thought at first that he had sustained 
fatal injuries. Under the devoted care, however, 
of Dr. Parke and some German physicians, the 
Pasha was brought slowly and with difficulty 
from the very door of death back again to life, and 
ten days later he was declared to be out of danger. 



252 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

Meanwhile telegrams of congratulation poured 
in on Stanley and the suffering Emin. It was 
recognized throughout the civilized world that 
the former had accomplished with rare honor a 
task of almost superhuman difficult}', while to 
the latter the hand of sympathy was pitifully 
extended in the hour which should have been one 
of unmixed rejoicing. The reception accorded to 
Stanley at Zanzibar would have done honor to a 
crowned monarch, and the whole world eagerly 
vied, day after day, in flashing along the ocean 
cables the willing share it took in that welcome. 
Among the acclamations of the hour none stands 
in greater prominence and none, perhaps, was 
more acceptable to the great explorer, than the 
message of the Queen whose subject he was born. 
Thus it ran : — 

"My thoughts are often with you and your 
brave followers, whose dangers and hardships are 
now at an end. Once more I heartily congratu- 
late all, including the survivors of the gallant 
Zanzibaris, who displayed such devotion and 
fortitude during your marvelous expedition. " 

Marvelous, indeed ! 

In spite of every difficulty, in spite of tho 
failure of his rear guard to follow in his steps, in 



HOMEWARD WITH HONOR. 253 

spite of the terrible collapse of the province over 
which Emin had ruled, in spite of fevers, famine, 
relentless natives and inhospitable nature, Stanley 
had consummated his mission with the best 
success. He had brought out of the danger of 
the dark Soudan the one white man left at his 
post. He had saved him from the fanatic Mah- 
dists, he had saved him from his own rebellious 
people. Had Stanley been unable to push through 
that terrible forest any one of the three times 
that he successfully performed that feat, Emin 
Pasha could hardly have survived the dervish 
confiscation of the last remnant of the Egyptian 
Soudan. It is conceivable that he might have 
been spared in order to be brought before the 
Mahdi himself ; but what then would have been 
his fate and the fate of his white companion, 
Casati ? They would have been forced to wander 
for years about the wide streets of Khartoum, 
dressed in the garb of the dervish, and outwardly 
conforming to the utter apathy and corruption 
of his social system. Whether Stanley saved 
Emin from the pangs of physical death or from 
the more insidious moral death which captivity 
at Khartoum would have insured, one thing at 
least is certain — he brought "the last white 
captain of the Soudan," the faithful lieutenant 



254: HENRY M. STANLEY. 

of that faithful general — Gordon — back again 
into civilization and all that civilization meant. 
To his own people — all those, of whatever nation 
or tongue, who had dwelt upon the Pasha's posi- 
tion with anxious sympathy, and followed the 
reliever's steps with prayerful eagerness — to such 
as these did Stanley bring Emin in safety from 
out of the very core of the Dark Continent. 

In only one other contingency is it conceivable 
that Stanley might have helped Emin better, had 
he simply taken vast stores of ammunition to 
him and then done everything in his power to 
strengthen the Pasha's position at Wadelai. The 
one condition to make this method of relief 
effectual was wanting. The Pasha was found to 
have no real power left — to be occupying a posi- 
tion which was daily becoming more and more 
untenable. There was therefore no hope of doing 
good by staying ; and Emin, in answer to 
Stanley's earnest appeals, determined to go. His 
decision meant life and safety not only for him- 
self, but also for those of his followers who still 
remained faithful. 

In its best sense, the relief of Emin must also 
mean the rescue of the Soudan from the tyranny 
of the dervish, and the slave-trade of the Arab. 
The loss of the Equatorial Province is but a call 



HOMEWARD WITH HONOR. 255 

to arms for another crusade in Central Africa. 
We are warring with the weapons of peace and 
commerce in Nyassaland, and that vast region 
through which the middle course of the Zambesi 
runs. In the interior, as well as on the west 
coast and the east, that crusade is being fought. 
With Mombasa as starting point, the commercial 
state of British East Africa is pushing inward 
to the Victoria N'yanza, and so onward to the 
lost valley of the Upper White Nile. When the 
day comes — as come it assuredly will — for the 
conversion of that country to civilization and the 
blessings of peace and unity, Stanley — if he be 
not, indeed, the actual leader in that crusade — 
will be remembered for his heroic relief of the 
one man who, for eleven long years, manfully 
upheld the banner in that deserted region, and 
who, though acclaimed throughout the world as 
Em in Pasha, thought himself honored the most 
in being Gordon's lieutenant ! 



256 HENRY M. STANLEY. 



CHAPTER XV. 

CROWNED WITH HONORS. 

"In all the annals of chivalric romance there 
is no more adventurous career than that of the 
Welsh workhouse boy who has just plucked the 
heart out of the mystery of the Dark Continent. 
On the shelves of Don Quixote's library there 
were no tomes more full of romantic fascination 
and enthralling interest than the volumes which 
tell of how Mr. Stanley found Livingstone, con- 
verted King of Mtesa, opened up the Congo, and 
rescued Emin." 

Thus wrote Mr. Stead, the brilliant editor of 
The Review of Revieivs, in 1889. The career of 
Stanley since that date has remarkably fitted it- 
self to the requirements of the staple romances. 
That is to say, the hero of romance, after sur- 
mounting infinite difficulties, overcoming appall- 
ing obstacles, displaying marvelous courage 
tempered by unfailing wisdom, marries the beauti- 



CROWNED WITH HONORS. 257 

ful princess, and the charming couple retire to 
the palace where they are honored by the whole 
world and are happy forever after. This is a 
fairly accurate description of the later career of 
Henry M. Stanley. 

In order to bring out the sharp contrast be- 
tween the life of energy and suffering of the ex- 
plorer in the forest, and the triumphs of the 
explorer returned to civilization, it will be nec- 
essary to recall briefly some of his experiences in 
Africa. While on his 160 days' journey through 
the terrible Congo forest, he wrote this descrip- 
tion : — 

"Try and imagine some of these inconveniences. 
Take a thick Scottish copse, dripping with rain ; 
imagine this copse to be a mere undergrowth, 
nourished under the impenetrable shade of an- 
cient trees, ranging from 100 to 180 feet high ; 
briars and thorns abundant ; lazy creeks, mean- 
dering through the depths of the jungle, and 
sometimes a deep affluent of a great river. Im- 
agine this forest and jungle in all stages of decay 
and growth— old trees falling, leaning perilously 
over, fallen prostrate ; ants and insects of all 
kinds, sizes, and colors, murmuring around ; 
monkeys and chimpanzees above, queer noises of 
birds and animals ; crashes in the jungle as 
*7 



258 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

troops of elephants rush away ; dwarfs with 
poisoned arrows securely hidden behind some 
buttress or in some dark recess ; strong, brown- 
bodied aborigines with terribly sharp spears, 
standing poised, still as dead stumps ; rain pat- 
tering down on you every other day in the year ; 
an impure atmosphere, with its dread conse- 
quences, fever and dysentery ; gloom throughout 
the day, and darkness almost palpable through- 
out the night ; and then, if you will imagine such 
a forest extending the entire distance from Plym- 
outh to Peterhead, you will have a fair idea of 
some of the inconveniences endured by us in the 
Congo Forest." 

This brief resume of an experience which lasted, 
with no relaxation, for well nigh half a year 
gives " a fair idea of some of the inconveniences " 
■ — not all — that fell to the lot of the traveler. 

A great change came over the character of the 
intrepid man as a result of the labors and respon- 
sibilities, an intimate change which radically af- 
fected his aims and purposes ; it was the myste- 
rious change which men call conversion. To his 
honored and beloved patron, Sir William Mac- 
kinnon, he wrote of this in the following words : — 

' ' You, who throughout your long and varied 
life have steadfastly believed in the Christian's 



CROWNED WITH HONORS. 259 

God, and before men have professed your devout 
thankfulness for many mercies vouchsafed to 
you, will better understand than many others the 
feelings which animate me when I find myself 
back in civilization, uninjured in life or health, 
after passing through so many stormy and dis- 
tressful periods. Constrained at the darkest hour 
to* humbly confess that without God's help I was 
helpless, I vowed a vow in the forest solitudes 
that I would confess His aid before men. Silence, 
as of death was round about me ; it was mid- 
night ; I was weakened by illness, prostrated by 
fatigue, and wan with anxiety for my white and 
black companions, whose fate was a mystery. 
In this physical and mental distress I besought 
God to give me back my people. Nine hours 
later we were exulting with a rapturous joy. In 
full view of all was the crimson flag with the 
crescent, and beneath its waving folds was the 
long-lost rear column. 

"If [the Pasha] with 4,000 appealed for help, 
what could we effect with 173 ? The night before 
I had been reading the exhortation of Moses to 
Joshua, and whether it was the effect of those 
brave words, or whether it was a voice, I know 
not ; but it appeared to me as though 1 heard, 
i Be strong, and of good courage ; fear not, nor 



260 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

be afraid of them, for the Lord thy God, he it is 
that doth go with thee ; he will not fail thee nor 
forsake thee.' When on the next day Mazamboni 
commanded his people to attack and exterminate 
us, there was not a coward in our camp ; whereas, 
the evening before, we exclaimed in bitterness, 
on seeing four of our men fly before one native. 
' And these are the wretches with whom we must 
reach the Pasha ! ' " 

After narrating that he had sent out 150 of his 
best men for forage, and that these men failed to 
return, leaving the remainder to starve to death, 
Stanley, apparently believing that his foragers 
had deserted him, continues : — 

"As we traveled that afternoon we passed 
several dead bodies in several stages of decay, 
and the sight of doomed, dying and dead pro- 
duced on my nerves such a feeling of weakness 
that I was well nigh overcome. 

" Every soul in that camp was paralyzed with 
sadness and suffering. Despair had made them 
all dumb. Not a sound was heard to disturb the 
deathly brooding. It was a mercy to me that I 
heard no murmur of reproach, no sigh of rebuke. 
I felt the horror of the silence of the forest, and 
thought intensely. Sleep was impossible. My 
thoughts dwelt on the recurring disobediences, 



CROWNED WITH HONORS. 261 

which caused so much misery and anxiety. Stiff- 
necked, rebellious, incorrigible human nature, 
ever showing its animalism and brutishness! 
Let the wretches be forever accursed ! Their 
utter thoughtlessness and oblivious natures, and 
continual breach of promises, kill more men and 
cause more anxiety than the poison of the dart, 
or barbs and points of the arrows. If I meet them 

I will But before my resolve was uttered, 

there flashed to my memory the dead men on the 
road, the doomed in the camp, and the starving 
with me, and the thought that those 150 were 
lost in the remorseless woods beyond recovery, or 
surrounded by savages without hope of escape. 
Then do you wonder that the natural hardness of 
the heart was softened, and that I again con- 
signed my care to Him who could alone assist 
us? 

"The next morning, within half an hour of the 
start, we met the foragers, safe, sound, robust, 
loaded, bearing four tons of plantains. You can 
imagine what cries of joy these wild children of 
nature uttered ; you can imagine how they flung 
themselves upon the fruit, and kindled the fires 
to roast and boil and bake, and how, after they 
were all filled, we strode back to the camp to re- 
joice those unfortunates with Mr. Bonny. 



262 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

" As I mentally review the many grim episodes, 
and reflect on the marvelously narrow escapes 
from utter destruction to which we have been 
subjected during our various journeys to and fro 
through that immense and gloomy extent of 
primeval woods, I feel utterly unable to attribute 
our salvation to any other cause than to a gra- 
cious Providence, who, for some purpose of His 
own, preserved us. All the armies and arma- 
ments of Europe could not have lent us any aid 
in the dire extremity in which we found ourselves 
in that camp between the Dui and Ihuru ; an 
army of explorers could not have traced our 
course to the scene of the last struggle, had we 
fallen ; deep, deep as utter oblivion had we been 
surely buried under the humus of the trackless 
wilds." 

It is thus evident that Stanley came back from 
Africa a different man from what he was when, 
as a newspaper correspondent, he first went there 
to find Livingstone. This change was not the 
inevitable result of the passing years, such as all 
mortals must pass through ; nor that natural 
strengthening of character which is always the 
reward of a manly conflict with difficulties. The 
change referred to includes also the change in the 
spirit and temper of his mind, by which he came 



CROWNED WITH HONORS. 263 

to look with different eyes on the great dark con- 
tinent, and upon the friendless, ignorant, savage, 
benighted wretches doomed there to live and die. 
This made him what Mr. Stead called a mis- 
sionary, for he became substantially a missionary 
and he did much to open the way for those who 
would engage in the direct work of missions with 
more formality than himself. Stanley had not 
only heard the still small voice in the depths of 
the forest, but previously, and preparatory to 
that, he had come into personal touch with the 
prince of missionaries, David Livingstone. 

After Stanley's exploration, after he returned 
to civilization, having accomplished the unspeak- 
able task of opening up Africa, there was nothing 
for him but plaudits and ovations. He, however, 
made not one return to civilization, but several : 
one after each of his several trips. But the 
honors showered on him upon these occasions 
were substantially continuous, and all of them 
form harmonious parts of one story. The salient 
points of these may therefore be narrated with- 
out particular regard to grouping or to their 
chronological order. His first report, in 1872, 
was of course made to his employer, James Gor- 
don Bennett, of the New York Herald. But, in 
coming to America, he must needs pass through 



964 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

England, where the popularity of Livingstone 
foreordained a wonderful welcome to his dis- 
coverer. Tearing himself away from his British 
admirers as soon as possible, he came quickly to 
New York City, where he was naturally the hero 
of the general public, the star of all journalists, 
and the bright particular star of the Herald force. 
It was the Herald force that tendered him the 
honor of a brilliant dinner at Delmonico's. The 
amusing story of this affair is narrated by Mr. 
Connery, who, as chief of the Herald staff, was 
chairman of the committee of this entertain- 
ment. 

The Delmonico dinner to Stanley was appointed 
for 7 P. M. sharp. The diners convened promptly, 
with expectant minds and appetites that presently 
became energetic. But the guest of honor was 
not in evidence. " Seven o'clock sharp " came 
and went, but Stanley neither came nor went. 
Tardiness, however, is recognized as one of the 
prerogatives of genius, and the group of men 
assembled to meet the famous man tried to make 
the best of the matter. As the quarter hours 
dragged themselves by, it looked as if Hamlet 
would be left out of the play that night. Finally 
the men openly grumbled, for a delayed dinner 
makes a man unreasonable ; the chef also, who 



CROWNED WITH HONORS. 265 

felt that his reputation was at stake, was heard 
to mutter. A search party was then organized 
to go out and find Stanley. To his hotel they 
proceeded and knocked at his door. No answer 
came to the knocking. Entering without invita- 
tion they found, in the inner room, the object of 
their search, in his shirt-sleeves, seated on the 
floor, surrounded by maps of Africa, oblivious of 
dinner, deaf to the vigorous knocking, and liter- 
ally absorbed in his studies. They commanded 
his instant attention, hurried him into his dress- 
suit, and marched him to his dinner, the first course 
of which was served precisely two hours after 
" seven o'clock sharp." Such was the concen- 
trated earnestness of the man whose motto might 
have been, " This one thing I do." 

After Stanley had published his letters, or some 
of them, in the paper that sent him to Africa, 
and after he had been sucessfully dined, the next 
thing for him to do was to lecture. A reporter, 
detailed by the Herald to write up the lecture, 
asked for specific instruction. " Shall I report 
the lecture on its merits ? " " Yes ; of course ! " 
Human nature always finds a difference between 
the merits of a friend and those of an enemy. 
The reporter in this case, unmindful that Stanley 
was a member of the Herald staff with a claim 



266 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

to leniency in the house of his friends, seemed to 
look on him rather as an enemy that ought to 
be exposed. At all events, he did not temper 
severity with mercy, but dipped his pen in undi- 
luted gall, and wrote : — " Mr. Stanley's elocution 
is bad, though it improves as he gets into his 
discourse, and might be made acceptable if his 
manner of treating his subjects was such as to 
insure a partial forgetfulness of his faults of 
oratory. Unfortunately this was not the case — 
lecture goers care little to be told of Livingstone 
as a missionary or Livingstone as a traveler — 
and consequently this part of his lecture last night 
was intolerably dull. Mr. Stanley has utterly 
mistaken the necessities of the platform. . . . 
If he has half the courage before an average 
civilized audience that he showed in the wilds of 
Africa he can at once overcome his deficiencies. 
To do this he, of course, must forego his manu- 
script, and, forgetting the singsong and doleful 
monotone in which his voice is too often pitched, 
simply talk to his auditors of what he saw, heard 
and suffered while doing his duty so nobly to the 
Herald, to humanity, and to science." 

The effect of this "fair, impartial sketch" of 
his first lecture in America was remarkable. So 
far as is known Stanley had absolutely no feeling 



CROWNED WITH HONORS. 267 

of resentment, and it is not likely that he cared 
for, even if he realized, the unkindness of the 
criticism. It is certain that he set himself to 
work to correct the alleged defects his critic had 
pointed out, and was as resolute in this as if the 
critic had been an infallible instructor in the art 
of oratory. It is not a common trait in human 
nature to profit by unkind criticisms, but Stanley 
was not a common man. His one motto through 
life, as he himself declared, was, " Whatsoever 
thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might." 
The same intense energy which he had applied to 
penetrating successfully the forest wilds in search 
of Livingstone, he now applied to the task of 
making his lecture acceptable to the lecture-going 
public of the United States ; and with equal suc- 
cess. Hardly did Demosthenes take more pains 
than Stanley, and his elaborate care was not 
relaxed as long as he was in the lecture field. 
When he was going from city to city, repeating 
the same lecture night after night, he would 
spend hours of the day going over it with the 
greatest care to see if he could not improve it. 
It was a matter of conscience with him, and he 
did it with his might. 

From such careful labors— considering that the 
man had a story to tell, and a very fascinating 



268 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

one at that — there could be but one result. It 
was many years afterwards that he came under 
the influence of Major Pond, and he doubtless 
made great improvement before he lectured under 
the management of the Major as well as during 
the progress of the lecture tours ; but the testi- 
mony of the latter may be inserted here : — " He 
was constantly remoulding, polishing, and im- 
proving the lectures during the tour." "From 
the start until the finish, one hundred and ten 
lectures, Stanley showed signs of steady improve- 
ment. He was good at the start, but shortly 
became a fine speaker, and then a better speaker, 
and before he had finished he was the best descrip- 
tive speaker I ever heard. " The very first lecture, 
however, the one delivered in 1872, Pond pro- 
nounced a dismal failure. 

Stanley applied also a great amount of care to 
the writing of his books, although as a newspaper 
man he must early have learned to write rapidly, 
Mr. Edward Marston, of the publishing firm 
Sampson Low, Marston & Co., London, has left a 
graphic account of the way in which at least one 
of his books was written. Eeturning from Africa, 
and having had some experience of being lion- 
ized, Stanley well knew that it would be almost 
impossible to command the seclusion necessary to 



CROWNED WITH HONORS. 209 

write with sufficient care after he had reached 
England. He accordingly determined to get his 
writing finished before going to England at all, 
and arranged to have Mr. Marston, his publisher, 
come to him at Cairo. The climate of Cairo at 
that season of year— winter— is quite fit for a 
Mohammedan paradise, suited for rest and pleas- 
ure, but not stimulating to labor. There were 
some interruptions, though these were immeasur- 
ably less than they would have been among his 
own countrymen : there were letters, telegrams, 
tourists, tuft-hunters, and what not. But Stan- 
ley maintained his seclusion. In his commodious 
suite of rooms at the hotel Villa Victoria, he 
made the bedroom his sanctum. His valet, Sail 
by name, the black boy who had traveled with 
him through Africa, began to lead a life of bur- 
den and of terror. For personal safety the boy 
devised a new way of delivering telegrams : 
namely, thrusting them into the room on the end 
of a long bamboo pole, and then taking to pre- 
cipitate flight. In the absorption of his work 
Stanley neglected his exercise, and he neglected 
his meals until Mr. Marston became alarmed for 
the life of the worker, but to his expostulations, 
about the only answer he could get was, ' ' But 
the book, the book ! I must finish the book." 



270 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

It will not be supposed that Stanley worked ab- 
solutely without rest or relaxation, but the above 
account is intended to show faithfully his ear- 
nestness. He did relax somewhat at meal time, 
and yet he was one of the most abstemious of 
men. Nor could seclusion well be more complete 
than his ; during Mr. Marston's entire stay, which 
was not brief, Stanley was outside the garden 
only three times : twice to dine, and one other 
time. Thus he threw his whole energy into the 
work of writing, and this work, too, he did with 
his might. 

The reporter who criticised Stanley's interest 
in Dr. Livingstone was in part right, though 
principally wrong. Stanley's devotion to the 
missionary was far beyond the reach of the sym- 
pathies and understanding of the average man 
who has little interest in missionaries. He 
was as loyal to Livingstone as to his patron saint. 
He would not tolerate anything that savored of 
criticism of him, and anything of the sort was to 
his mind a species of blasphemy ; for, as Mr. 
Stead said, Stanley " found salvation " when he 
found Dr. Livingstone. When he was an in- 
vited guest at a dinner of the British Association 
at Brighton, a gentleman there present said 
something in a disparaging tone of Livingstone's 



CROWNED WITH HONORS. 271 

claim to have discovered the sources of the Nile. 
To Stanley this seemed like an aspersion on the 
honor of his friend, and he was instantly in a 
towering rage. He jumped up from the banquet, 
absolutely refusing to speak as he had been ex- 
pected, flung a guinea on the table to pay for his 
dinner and stalked off without a word. 

The first lecture Stanley gave, that in 1872 
which has already been mentioned, was so far 
removed from success that it can hardly be 
counted as one of his series of lectures, because 
it stood alone ; and yet it was necessary to his 
future success. The first lecture, or a first 
lecture, had to be given some time, the first 
failure apparently had to be made, and it was 
well that these should be done and out of the way 
as early as possible. It was at the earnest 
recommendation of Henry Ward Beecher that 
Major Pond, who may be called the Barnum of 
American lecture bureaus, approached Stanley 
with the proposition for a lecture tour ; and with 
Major Pond, to seek a star lecturer was to 
win. He was as sure of his game as was Davy 
Crockett. After various preliminaries, which 
could have but one conclusion, arrangements 
were made for a season of fifty lectures, at the 
price of one hundred dollars each, beginning in 



272 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

New York November 29, 1886 ; but it was ex- 
pressly stipulated that if Leopold, King of the Bel- 
gians, recalled Stanley, he was to be allowed to 
return without let or hindrance. 

The first lecture of this series was given in 
Chickering Hall — recently demolished, but then 
standing on the northwest corner of Fifth Avenue 
and 18th street. Henry Ward Beecher's felicitous 
introduction of the lecturer helped to give the 
entire course a successful launching, and the news- 
papers also contributed, perhaps involuntarily, to 
this success by their columns of interviews with 
the newly arrived explorer. The fourth and fifth 
lectures of the course were given in Hartford and 
Boston, at both of which Mark Twain introduced 
the speaker. In the mixture of the absurd and 
the serious that constituted the introductory 
speech at Boston, Mark Twain compared Stanley 
favorably with Columbus : Columbus started out 
to discover America, but all he had to do was to 
" sit in his cabin and hold his grip and sail straight 
on, and America would discover itself. Here it 
was, barring his passage the whole length and 
breadth of the South American continent, and he 
couldn't get by it. He'd got to discover it. But 
Stanley started out to find Dr. Livingstone, who 
was scattered abroad, as you may say, over the 



CROWNED WITH HONORS. 273 

length and breadth of a vast slab of Africa as big 
as the United States. It was a blind kind of 

search." 

This grotesque and startling speech of Mark 
Twain's not only pleased the public by its humor, 
but it struck thoughtful people as containing an 
important truth, and that Stanley was entitled to 
rank with Marco Polo, Columbus, Captain Cook, 
and all the explorers of the very first rank. The 
introduction was a success, and so was the lecture. 
So also was the series of lectures ; for applications 
for lectures by Stanley began to pour in so thick 
that it was quickly agreed between the lecturer 
and his manager to extend the course from fifty 
to one hundred lectures. But alas for the plans, 
only eleven of the number were actually given, 
the last one being in Amherst, Mass. The King 
of the Belgians suddenly summoned Stanley for 
his last and greatest trip into the Dark Continent. 
This contingency was known to be possible but it 
was not at all expected. There was nothing for an 
honest man to do but obey the summons, and 
Stanley was the soul of honesty. It was not pleas- 
ant for the manager to lose both the money and the 
fame which were now about within his grasp, but 
he was in part compensated by Stanley's last re- 
mark as the two parted on the steamer :— " I owe 
18 



274 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

you eighty-nine lectures, which I will deliver if 
ever I return from Africa." 

Three and a half years later Stanley returned 
to London, literally the hero of the world. Major 
Pond was fortunately in London about the same 
time on other business. Although Stanley, writ- 
ing his book, which was a sort of report of his ex- 
pedition, was up to his eyes in work and " saw no 
one," he did see Major Pond and he showed that 
he did not forget that he was still eighty-nine lec- 
tures in arrears. In the mean time he was over- 
whelmed with flattering offers from other man- 
agers for lecture tours. One offered him $150,000 
and expenses all paid, for a course of one hundred 
lectures. But the lecturer was loyal to his former 
manager. A new scale of prices was agreed upon, 
the terms of which were not made known to the 
public ; but it is sufficient to say that both parties 
concerned were satisfied, and it may be added that 
each made a fortune out of the enterprise. The 
first lecture of this series was given in New York 
City in November, 1890, or about four years later 
than the last previous lecture, and the box receipts 
amounted to the unparalleled sum of $17,800. 
In the nature of the case the other lectures could 
not possibly equal the success of this, but the 
course as a whole was eminently gratifying, for 



CROWNED WITH HONORS. 275 

it was " the most successful lecture engagement 
ever made in the United States." 

This lecture tour was quite like a triumphal 
procession. His enthusiastic welcome was the 
only honor that could be accorded in the United 
States, but such as it was it was given with great 
zest. In this country it is not the custom to give 
medals, orders, and decorations ; but the ovations 
he received were no less intelligent and no less 
hearty. And though Stanley is British by birth, 
and though he became British by citizenship, the 
Americans have always considered and will always 
consider him essentially one of ourselves. 

It was a foregone conclusion that a man of 
Stanley's attainments and position should stand 
for parliament. Accordingly in 1892 he became 
a candidate of the Liberal Union party in the con- 
test at North Lambeth. There were 7,300 
electors, and, according to the English methods, 
an enormous amount of electioneering was re- 
quired, far more than the American politician 
can understand or wishes to experience. For this 
work he had but nine days, while his opponent 
had been " laying his pipes" for three years. 
The result, though not successful, was nattering ; 
Stanley was defeated by the narrow margin of 
130 votes. Again, in 1895, he was a candidate 



276 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

and was elected. In politics he belongs to the 
Liberal Union party ; his objections to the sepa- 
rate government of Ireland may be stated in the 
following words : The separate government of 
Ireland would only lead to a similar demand from 
Wales, then from Scotland, then from south 
England, and so on until the old conditions of the 
Heptarchy would once more obtain and it would 
be impossible to resist foreign invasion. 

In the year 1899 Stanley was created Grand 
Cross of the Bath, which entitles him to the 
knightly honor of being known as Sir Henry M. 
Stanley. This is not a political office, but it is 
given in recognition of his eminent services to 
civilization, and it is the last public honor he has 
received up to date. 

Stanley's greatest triumphs came after his final 
return to England, having rescued Emin Pasha. 
He was at once the guest of the Prince of Wales 
at the Sandringham Palace. The Eoyal Geo- 
graphical society, under the patronage of the 
Prince of Wales, gave him a magnificent recep- 
tion in St. James Hall, May 5, 1890. That was 
to be the occasion of presenting a gold medal to 
the explorer, and a bronze medal to each of his 
companions in commemoration of their services 
to the science of geography. Stanley on his part 



CROWNED WITH HONORS. 277 

was to tell the story of his journey, including the 
description of the Mountains of the Moon, the re- 
lief of Emin Pasha, and other topics. The oc- 
casion was brilliant in the extreme. As the pro- 
cession, with the President, Mr. Stanley, the 
Prince of Wales, and the Duke of Edinburgh at 
its head, entered the hall, the assemblage of some 
seven thousand people, in all the brilliance of 
evening dress, arose as with one mind, and gave 
their guest such an enthusiastic greeting, such a 
tempestuous reception, such rounds of cheering, 
such bursts of applause, that only fall to a very 
few in many years, and that come to a man but 
once. 

This brilliant honor was in substance repeated 
in all the great cities of England and Scotland. 
A description of them all would weary the reader 
by the very monotony of magnificence. The 
whole may be summarized in the keen remark of 
Mark Twain: "This untainted American has 
been caressed and complimented by half the 
crowned heads of Europe, and he could clothe his 
body from his head to his heels with the orders 
and decorations lavished upon him." The chief 
cities of Great Britain presented him with their 
freedom, the highest honor they can bestow, 
while the universities gave him honorary degrees. 



278 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

He accepted these honors frankly, although a 
near friend said that receptions and dinners 
worried him, as he could not bear being on ex- 
hibition under a shower of forced compliments. 
But so great was the work he accomplished that 
the New Review justly remarked that the next 
great geographical sensation in store for human- 
ity is the return of the man who shall have 
reached the North Pole. 

There were of course some drawbacks to the 
triumphs Stanley enjoyed. It was no secret that 
there was a rupture of the friendship between 
Emin and his rescuer. Dr. Peters, a later 
traveler over the same country, bitterly attacked 
Stanley. So did the friends of Major Barttelot 
and others. E. L. Godkin published in a maga- 
zine an ingenious and caustic article in which he 
accused Stanley of piracy. All these, however, 
proved to be mere ripples on the surface. They 
are either forgotten, or dimly remembered as 
ancient history, while the great continent is 
steadily developing in wealth and moving towards 
civilization. Stanley was human. It would be 
foolish for any enthusiast to claim that he made 
no mistakes. But the wonder is, not that he 
made mistakes, not that he was sometimes irri- 
table, but that on the whole he made so few mis- 



CROWNED WITH HONORS. 279 

takes, and that he was able at all times so well to 
control both his men and himself as to succeed 
where all others had failed, and to succeed with 
the minimum loss of life. Whatever criticisms 
have been made or may be made, it is evident to 
all that his work as a whole and in its details was 
crowned with success. 

When Stanley returned to England in 1890, 
after the almost miraculous act of rescuing Emin 
Pasha, the enthusiasm was unbounded, and his 
welcome was such as it seldom falls to the lot of 
man to receive. A poet, H. D. Kawnsley, pub- 
lished in Murray's Magazine for June, 1890, an 
ode entitled " Welcome to Stanley," which well 
represented the general feeling of the great public. 
The entire ode is nearly three hundred lines long, 
and only the last stanza is here given : — 

We bring the weary traveler home 
Not with the rolling drum and trumpet's blare 

Nor pomp of indefatigable bells, 

For he has said so many sad farewells ; 
He comes not flushed from war but worn with care, 
He went not forth to conquer but to pave ; 

And though from half a world he hath removed 

The cloud of death and darkness, those he loved 
Lie far in some unvisitable grave. 
Wherefore our England now goes forth to meet him 

With hands outstretched, and silent — eye to eye, 

Because her heart is full and tears are by ; 
So does our England greet him, 
And brings the long lost, weary wanderer home. 



280 HENRY M. STANLEY. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE. 

The popular welcome was also general and ex- 
tended well-nigh to all sorts and conditions of 
men. Societies, corporations, individuals, strove 
for the honor of doing him honor. The universi- 
ties of Edinburgh and of Cambridge both con- 
ferred the degree of LL.D. on him, while Ox- 
ford gave him that of D.C.L. But an honor 
even more fascinating, more welcome to him per- 
sonally, and of much greater value than it was in 
the power of any university to give, was con- 
ferred on him by the young lady who had been 
the subject of his dreams and visions both in 
Africa and out of it. A part of the delightful 
affair is narrated in the Youth's Companion : — 

A pretty story of how Henry M. Stanley wooed 
and won Miss Dorothy Tennant, though coming 
to us from private sources has been made suffi- 
ciently public to avert the charge of undue per- 
sonality. Miss Tennant, it is well known, was 



COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE. 281 

the original of Sir John Millais's famous picture, 
" Yes or No ?" It seems that Stanley had asked 
the question and the answer was " No." 

The great explorer went to Africa again, and 
after several years returned to London to find 
himself the most-talked-of man of the day. 

The thought of Miss Tennant was still upper- 
most in his mind, and he resolved that his first 
visit should be to her home. In his impatience 
for the morrow he turned over the cards and 
notes with which the table was strewn, and select- 
ing one haphazard, decided to while away the 
time by attending a certain reception. 

The first person he met there was Miss Ten- 
nant ; they greeted each other formally, but later 
in the evening Stanley retired to a small ante- 
room, to find that Miss Tennant had likewise 
sought solitude. A somewhat embarrasing silence 
ensued, broken at last by the woman saying, with 
the manner of one " making conversation " : 

" Do you find London much changed, Mr. 
Stanley?" 

"No; I haven't found London changed, and 
I've not changed, either," returned the explorer 
with his usual intrepidity. " Have you ? " 

" Yes, I've changed," answered Miss Tennant, 
softly. 



282 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

A few days later Millais received a note from 
his former subject, beginning : 

" My Dear Sir John : 

" The momentous question has been at last de- 
cided. It is a joyful and triumphant ' yes ! ' " 

Miss Tennant, whose personal beauty is widely 
known through the copies of Sir John Millais's 
charming picture, above mentioned, was one of 
the most generally admired young ladies of 
London society. " Descended in direct line from 
Oliver Cromwell," says one, "her energy, ver- 
satility, and intrepidity recall the familiar saying 
that if Richard Cromwell could have changed 
places with his sister, England might have es- 
caped the curse of a Stuart restoration." She was 
also a clever writer and an artist of no mean 
ability. Some of her cartoons and illustrations 
were very fetching and were known to the London 
public at large, while her more serious work was 
exhibited in the art galleries. The news of the 
engagement caused much delight to Stanley's 
friends in London, and everywhere, as the charms 
of the affianced bride became known. The mar- 
riage seemed ideal, and it was a fitting crown to 
the labors, the sufferings, and the patience of the 
great explorer. 



COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE. 283 

The marriage took place in Westminster Abbey 
July 12, 1890, at about two o'clock in the after- 
noon, and was a brilliant affair. 

Two days before the wedding ceremony Mr. 
Stanley had an attack of gastritis, a painful 
reminiscence of African experiences. He was, 
however, so far improved as to be present 
promptly at the hour set for the marriage, though 
he was compelled to walk with the assistance of 
a stout cane. As he entered the choir of the 
great Abbey, the organ, under the skilful touch 
of Dr. Bridge, sent forth the fascinating strains 
of the bride's chorus from " Lohengrin." The 
preparations were elaborate. The nave and choir 
were carpeted with red cloth, the steps to the 
altar were nearly filled with baskets covered with 
white silk, containing wedding favors, and the 
grave of Livingstone was marked with two mag- 
nificent wreaths of flowers, one sent by the bride 
and groom, and the other by the members of his 
expedition. The south transept was occupied by 
a brilliant company of guests who held tickets, 
and the north transept was filled to its utmost 
capacity with other people. Stanley's best man 
was the Comte D'Aroche, who was sent as the 
special representative of Leopold, King of the 
Belgians. The groomsmen were Lieutenant 



284 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

Stairs, Dr. Parke, Captain Nelson, Mr. Barney, 
and Mr. Jephson. The faithful black boy, Sali, 
who had followed his leader through Africa made 
a fitting and picturesque rear-guard to the pro- 
cession. 

Presently the organ announced the arrival of 
the bride at the west entrance. She "wore a 
skirt of white satin, embroidered with pearls, 
with a bodice and a long court train of white 
corded silk ; round her neck she wore a diamond 
necklace presented by Sir W. Mackinnon, from 
which was suspended the miniature of the Queen, 
surrounded by brilliants, the gift of her Majesty." 
The opening exhortation of the marriage service 
was read by Archdeacon Farrar, and the cere- 
mony was continued by the Bishop of Eipon. 
After the placing of the ring on the finger, the 
rest of the service was conducted by the Dean 
and a Canon, and all was followed by an anthem 
of Dr. Bridge composed for the occasion, and an 
impressive address by one of the clergy. The 
couple passed out to the music of Mendelssohn's 
familiar wedding march. 

To each of the wedding favors, which were dis- 
tributed by a number of ladies after the cere- 
mony, was attached by a bow of white satin 
ribbon a silvered card, cut out in the form of 



COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE. 285 

the continent of Africa, with the word Africa 
stamped upon it, and showing the course of the 
Congo river. The register was signed in the 
Jerusalem Chamber, and among the names added 
to those of the bride and bridegroom were Mr. 
and Mrs. Gladstone, the Dean of Westminster, 
the Bishop of Ripon, Sir Frederic Leighton, Bar- 
oness Burdett-Coutts, and Sir William Mackin- 
non. As Mr. and Mrs. Stanley passed from the 
Abbey, up Whitehall Street, to their future home 
at No. 2, Richmond Terrace, they were all the 
way loudly cheered by large crowds. 

Owing to his recent illness Mr. Stanley rested 
while at their house, but the bride graciously ac- 
cepted the congratulations of friends. From this 
house they presently drove in an open carriage 
to the Waterloo station, where they took the 
train for the sumptuous residence of Lady Ash- 
burton, Melchet Court, Hants, which the owner 
had generously placed at the disposal of the newly 
married couple for their honeymoon. 

The wedding was followed by the lecture tour 
in the United States for the season of 1890-1891, 
under the management of Major Pond. This 
tour answered for a wedding trip, and such a 
wedding trip as was never before enjoyed and is 
not likely soon to be duplicated. Despite the pro- 



286 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

testation of the bride that she wanted her hus- 
band all to herself, and that she was jealous of 
the time commanded by the manager and the 
lecture engagements, the phenomenal welcome, 
the amazing success, the enthusiastic honors of 
this lecture tour could not be other than ex- 
tremely gratifying to her. No royal honors 
could have been greater, and the best of it was 
that it was the spontaneous outburst of the honor 
which a free and intelligent people paid to the 
character and achievements of the hero, and that 
they admired him not less, but all the more, be- 
cause he was a self-made man. Such unusual 
tributes of honor did not detract from the joy of 
the wedding journey in the least ; and if Mrs. 
Stanley was susceptible to the feeling of pride, 
her pride in her husband was more than satisfied. 
Mr. and Mrs. Stanley have made their home at 
No. 2, Eichmond Terrace, London. Eichmond 
Terrace is a quiet side street leading off from 
the beautiful and famous Thames Embankment. 
The home has all the quiet of perfect seclusion, 
and yet it is hardly twenty rods from the entrance 
to the House of Parliament ; it is out of the noisy 
world but within easy reach of the center of 
things : the House of Parliament and Westmin- 
ster Abbey are at hand. The broad sweep of the 



COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE. 287 

river just there adds a touch of picturesqueness. 
The house itself is a veritable museum of curios, 
artistically arranged. The literary tastes and 
labors, the interest in public affairs, and the 
supervision of his private interests, give Stanley 
enough to do without crowding him, or being 
burdensome to him. His great work is done, 
so far as human eye can see, and all the world 
rejoices in the serenity of his later years. 

THE END. 



APR 10 1903 



